Nouvelles en Langue Anglaise

Rappel du premier message :

U.S. clamps down on banking transactions; terror group finds new funding

By Robert Windrem and Garrett Haake
NBC News
updated 7:56 a.m. ET Nov. 14, 2008
Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. intelligence officials believe they've won many small victories against al-Qaida's ability to finance its operations, but they remain unable to put a concrete dollar figure on their impact.

That's because they have no reliable estimate of al-Qaida's overall budget, according to current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials, which means the only measures of the organization's economic health are sporadic, anecdotal and fragmentary.

"When you see a cell complaining that it hasn't received its monthly or biannual stipend and it's unable to pay the salaries of the people in the cell, unable to make the support payments to the families of terrorists living or dead, that's a tremendous indicator we have pressured the financial channel," said Adam Szubin, the director of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the man in charge of tracking terrorist finance.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27644191

By John Dickerson
Posted Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, at 7:42 AM ET



President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden meet with congressional leaders

Washington officials can't say for sure how many people are coming to town for Barack Obama's inauguration. Estimates have ranged from 2 million to 4 million. Perhaps the confusion lies in figuring out how many are coming to see his swearing-in and how many are lining up to get their share of the coming stimulus package.

With a price tag approaching $1 trillion, the steel companies, universities, mayors (link for subscribers only), governors, ethanol producers, and health care technology companies all want something from the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." (Legislative titles inflate like their price tags.) This grabbiness is partially why no one in Washington is talking any more about having legislation ready for President Obama to sign on his first day in office or in the "very first days of his administration," as his press secretary Robert Gibbs once put it. It's now unlikely to be ready before the middle of February.

Obama is preaching urgency. He told congressional leaders Monday that he really wanted them to make that new deadline. Americans are hurting, and Congress needs to move quickly. He plans to give a speech Thursday once again outlining his plans to jump-start the economy, create jobs, and increase long-term productivity through investment in everything from schools to roads.

Shansaa : vous expliquiez il y a quelques temps, qu'Obama n'etant que President-elu, il ne pouvait pas s'exprimer sur certains sujets (il etait question du capharnaum de l'Illinois - je ne vois d'ailleurs pas le rapport) Je suppose que ca depend des sujets.)

.......

A politician can never go wrong urging Congress to pick up the pace, and in the Senate, where three open seats have turned into circus shows, you could see how Democratic leaders might get distracted. But if it takes awhile to put the stimulus package together, the delay is of Obama's own doing. To produce the thoughtful, bipartisan bill he has called for, Congress will have to take some time.

Talking Joe: Biden makes news

By CAROL E. LEE | 1/6/09 5:52 PM EST

Joe Biden hasn’t said much in public since the election, but one of Washington’s most prolific talkers is back – and making news whenever he speaks.

In fewer than five minutes on Tuesday, Biden criticized his own incoming Obama administration and disclosed information his aides have kept secret for security reasons.

And on Monday, Biden declared, “We’re at war!” and compared the economic turmoil to 9/11.

Team Obama kept Biden under wraps immediately after the election, but with his Senate swearing-in and upcoming Iraq trip, he’s back in front of the microphones.

Chatting with reporters after he was sworn in for a seventh term in the Senate, Biden called it “a mistake” that the Obama transition selected Leon Panetta as CIA director without consulting the Senate intelligence committee.

"I'm still a Senate man and I always think this way. I think it's always good to talk to the requisite members of Congress," Biden said. “I think it was just a mistake."

Biden then went on to reveal the key stops on his upcoming overseas trip with a Senate delegation – without even being asked.

...

But Biden also leaned toward some stark imagery during an interview last month on ABC’s “This Week,” where he said a stimulus package was necessary to keep the economy from “absolutely tanking.”

The vice president-elect even displayed some of his classic flair in an event Monday night honoring Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.

He commended Minner for her service and “deep love, a deep deep love” for the state of Delaware, according to a local news report.

But then, the report says, Biden noted Minner’s sometime "vindictiveness” before calling her "a lady with a backbone like a ramrod."

Votre 151

J'adore lorsque vous commencez vos messages par "Eeuhh..." ca fait tres.. gamine.
Eeeuhh si vous voulez, si ca peut vous faire plaisir

Serieusement: Par qui? par les Bush Haters? des lors, la valeur? D'ailleurs, je l'ai toujours entendu surnomme l'"architecte"* mais evidemment, Bush's brain, c'est mieux pour la gauche, on ne peut pas oter a Carl Rove ses capacites mais on degomme Pres. Bush. aie aie aie...
Karl Rove avec un K s'il vous plait . je me suis meme fendue d'une visite sur le site de la Maison Blanche meme si j'etais a 1000% sure mais la je le suis
a 1001%

* un peu comme Carville "l'architecte de la victoire de Bill...." (interessant comme caractere James, hein? lui aussi, il en veut!)
Carville a ete l’artisan de l’election de Clinton. Karl (avec un K) a ete celui de Bush mais egalement son eminence grise, le grand decideur. D’ailleurs que s’est-il vraiment passe depuis que Rove est parti ?
Rove me fait penser a Fouche sous Bonaparte. Gout de l'intrigue dans l'ombre. Bref recherchez, c'est facile.

- WMD : Les services secrets preparent les rapports, lui en a exagere le contenu et la menace. Ne soyez pas si naive . Les faux documents de Rather ? Idiot de ne pas verifier ses source, B-A BA du journalisme. Plus importantes etaient les pseudo preuves sur l’Irak que Powell a presente a l’ONU y compris le rapport du MI5 plagiat d’un doc. ecrit par un etudiant des annees auparavant. De la part d’un gouvernemenrt, le faux et usage de faux me semble plus grave.

La il me semblait que c'etait l'affaire du Yellow cake au Niger
uniquement et d'ailleurs contrairement a ce que Joe Wilson avait mis
dans son rapport, saddam avait bel et bien envoye un emissaire pour au
moins se renseigner sinon pour acheter.
Yellow Cake : Non, Joe Wilson avait raison et les documents etaient faux, meme les votres l'ont reconnu il ya longtemps :
- Fleischer: Now, we've long acknowledged -- and this is old news, we've said this repeatedly -- that the information on yellow cake did, indeed, turn out to be incorrect
- Rice: What we've said subsequently is, knowing what we now know, that some of the Niger documents were apparently forged, we wouldn't have put this in the President's speech.

La encore, vous defigurez la realite des choses, il a ete condamne pour faux serment et obstruction de justice,
Hmm. Dans quelle affaire rappelez-moi ?

ce qui est incense a partir du moment ou il a ete reconnu innocent de ce dont il etait accuse. Il est nouille lui aussi, il n'avait qu'a repeter ce que les Clinton disent toujours lorsqu'ils sont devant un juge: "I have no recollection whatsoever..."
Le bon truc oui, c’est vrai. Clinton l’a utilise mais l’ex Attorney General, Gonzales lui, l’a utilise plus de 70 fois le 19 Avril lors de son temoignage devant le congres;
C'est une mode.....decidemment

Oh la la, Carter qui recherche de la souplesse... quelle formidable abilite de votre part a vous contortionner!
???

Ayant repris point par point ce que vous ecriviez je n'ai pas plus ni moins parle de clinton deprave sexuel (c'est bien a vous de le reconnaitre!! ) que de son bilan economique, que vous.
Si vous ramenez tout a Lewinski. A part vous et une partie des USA, nous avons tous pense que monter cette histoire en epingle etait du plus haut ridicule.
Je le repete, je m’en contrefiche de ce qu’a fait Clinton avec son pantalon, le contenu de son pantalon et tout ce qui va avec. Qu’il ait 52 ans et elle 25, ce n’est pas mon affaire, c’est la leur, c.a.d. celle de deux adultes en toute connaissance de cause. Les meres la pudeur et les vierges effarouchees, tres peu pour moi, je laisse ce soin a d’autres.

Mais non puisqu'il n'avait pas eu de "sexual relationship with that woman" et qu'il n'a pas menti; vous voyez bien que vous vous emmelez.
Je m’emmele, pourquoi ? J’ai dit qu’il n’avait pas eu de relations avec Lewinski ? Ou ca ?

Pour moi ce n'est pas plus que ca, ca n'a pas affecte le pays en aucune maniere. Ce ne sont pas ses sessions avec Lewinski qui lui ont fait negliger les "offres" de Ben laden dont vous parlez....
Ah bon, c'est formidable, vous etes tres sure de vous, vu que c'est tres subjectif, vous avez droit a votre opinion et moi a la mienne?
Les resultats et la situation du pays sont la pour le prouver. Et bien sur vous avez droit a votre opinion

========

Mitterrand
Pourquoi, s'est-il senti oblige de le cacher toute sa vie, si ca n'a choque personne? et pourquoi les journalistes ont-ils joue le jeu egalement, alors que quand meme la 2eme famille vivait aux frais des contribuables francais.
Parce qu'il etait farouchement prive et qu'il estimait a juste titre que ca ne regardait que lui. Les journalistes ont respecte pour une fois. Il n'etait pas petri de honte comme vous semblez le croire, au contraire. Mais en France on n'en a pas fait une affaire d'etat comme on a aussi fichu une paix royale a Chirac et ses maitresses.
Ca n'a choque personne je vous le redis. Par contre les frais de la 2e famille aux frais du contribuable, ca a fait tiquer beaucoup de gens, a juste titre aussi.

Oui, les Senateurs ont vote en sa faveur, pour raison politique, mais Clinton, je repete a ete defait des licenses qui l'autorisaient a pratiquer le droit pas seulement en Arkansas mais par la Cour Supreme, alors lorsque vous dites qu'il n'a pas menti, il me semble, il me semble seulement que ce n'est pas l'avis des barreaux concernes. Mais, hein, la encore, vous avez le droit de penser ce que vous voulez, si ca vous fait du bien, c'est formidable non?

je n'ai pas dit qu'il n'avait pas menti, j'ai dit que toute cette histoire n'aurait jamais du arriver car toute cette procedure avait ete declenchee sur la base d'histoires de vie privee. Car si on n'avait pas mis son nez dans sa,vie privee, il n'aurait pas menti sous serment et la suite.......C'est plus clair ?
Ou vou faites expres de ne pas comprendre ou je m'exprime mal, c'est possible.

gné ?
Genee?
Du tout. c'est un pot utilise sur certains fora pour dire qu'on n'a pas tres bien compris la logique de ce que disait l'interlocuteur.

Moi, nullement, je trouve assez drole toutefois que vos principes et votre indignation ne s'appliquent qu'a ces affreux Republicains mais que lorsqu'il s'agit de Democrates, vous redevez tres tres liberale.
Je trouve que la vie privee est la vie privee et doit etre respectee en tant que telle, meme pour un president entre 4 murs de la Maison Blanche. ca n'a rien a voir avec la politique.

Pour moi, un parjure se doit d'etre puni. Pour des raisons politiques, Clinton ne l'a pas ete.
Il a ete suspendu de pratique, c'est vous qui continuez a le repeter.

Ah mais quand on est intelligent et capable comme Clinton, pourquoi n'a-t-il pas compris l'importance de prendre possession de ben laden (apres tout, Clinton avait deja essuye la premiere attaque des tours en '93)

Je vous renvoie a la legerete avec laquelle l'administration Bush a traite les avertissements adresses sur les possibilites de menaces de Hijacking.

J’attends votre reponse a mon 159.

Bonne nuit

Bonjour

J’attends votre reponse a mon 159.

La voila, la voila, je n'avais pas vu votre 159:

Je viens de perdre un bon moment, utilisant le moteur de recherche et n'ai pas retrouve votre message seulement celui ou je reprenais l'expression en italique et entre guillemets, ce qui veut normalement dire que je cite directement. (la prochaine fois je ferai une reference directe au numero du message et/ou au fil, et repondrai des la premiere lecture du message au lieu de lire et repondre plus tard.

*1 la probite et l'honnetete intellectuelle: oui c'est un fait que si l'on ecoute les anti-Bush, il est surprenant que Carl Rove ne se promene pas avec des cornes sur la tete, une cape rouge et un trident. mais bon. Les Bush haters n'ont-ils pas toujours discredite toutes les personnes prochent de Pres. Bush Ou ce sont des imbeciles incultes ou ce sont des montres prets a tout pour reussir : "mafia texane". (Pres Bush, lui etant, une fois l'un une fois l'autre, selon l'interet du moment!) - 135


Je sais ne pas l'avoir inventee (n'ayant jamais entendu parler de mafia texane avant, il aurait fallu que je le fasse) et je me rappelle parfaitement de ma reaction de "disbelief" a la lecture. Toutefois, ne pouvant prouver ce que j'ai releve je retire toute reference que j'ai pu y faire et vous demande de bien vouloir l'excuser.

======

En ce qui concerne votre "je n'ai pas dit qu'il n'avait pas menti"

Pas non plus, de message sur nouvelles en langue anglaise: ou depart de la conversation vous disiez ne pas souscrire a la these du mensonge ou quelque chose du genre. Ensuite, vous avez accepte le fait qu'il ait menti... mais

=====

"Gne" je ne pense pas que ca ait jamais ete employe ici, on ne pourra plus le dire. Maintenant que vous l'expliquez, j'ai toutefois "vu" (car normalement accompagnee d'une grimace faciale et de mains atrophiees supposee rappeler une personne handicappee physique/mentale); un peu trop disons... juvenile pour moi. Mais maintenant je saurai pour la prochaine fois.

Closing in on a deal

By MANU RAJU | 1/7/09 1:57 PM EST Updated: 1/7/09 1:57 PM EST

Democratic leaders have backed down in the Roland Burris showdown, saying his seating hinges on action in the courts, the Illinois legislature and a final vote of United States senators.

There’s an increasingly strong chance that Burris will prevail on all these fronts and he’ll become a U.S. senator, ending an embarrassing chapter in Democratic politics.

After a 45 minute meeting with Burris Wednesday morning, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin emerged without an immediate deal to seat Burris, yet seem perilously close to saying Burris will prevail.

“This was a positive meeting and it moves us forward,” Durbin said.

...

Le fait qu'Obama ne soit que President-elu utilise comme excuse a ses silences concernant Gaza (politique exterieure ok) mais aussi l'affaire de l'Illinois - son remplacement au Senat - Richardson, n'est que cla: une excuse.

It's the economic rollout, stupidBy JEANNE CUMMINGS | 1/7/09 4:45 AM EST

Barack Obama’s elaborate rollout of his economic recovery plan could provide an impressive early victory for his incoming administration.

But it also carries risks.

If he fails to deliver on his plan — both in scope and in speed — it could wreak havoc with an already precarious economy and roil global markets that have become relatively stable since he began outlining his program.

If he fails to treat seriously his invitation to congressional Republicans to engage in the process, it could inject an atmosphere of mistrust and resentment that would haunt his future domestic policy ambitions.

...

Barack Obama’s elaborate rollout of his economic recovery plan could provide an impressive early victory for his incoming administration.

But it also carries risks.

If he fails to deliver on his plan — both in scope and in speed — it could wreak havoc with an already precarious economy and roil global markets that have become relatively stable since he began outlining his program.

If he fails to treat seriously his invitation to congressional Republicans to engage in the process, it could inject an atmosphere of mistrust and resentment that would haunt his future domestic policy ambitions.

...

At the White House, President George W. Bush is managing the nation’s response to the new aggressions in the Middle East and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Across Lafayette Park at the Hay-Adams hotel, Obama is driving the government’s response to the domestic economic crisis.

Perhaps more remarkable, both men appear content to let the other conduct his business without much interference.

Obama has routinely refused to comment extensively on foreign events and the Bush administration’s handling of them.

Early on, the president made it clear that he wouldn’t support a massive economic recovery plan such as the one promoted by Obama. But since then, Bush has largely refrained from criticizing his successor’s efforts or from pressuring Republicans to block them.

Bush even kept a low profile when Obama moved in on his turf.

No other president in modern times has arrived in Washington nearly three weeks before his Inauguration and begun engaging Congress on such a critical issue in such a big way.

Bonjour Sylvette,

Il semble y avoir une telle pagaille dans les N° que je n'en mettrai pas sur ce message, pardonnez-moi.

La voila, la voila, je n'avais pas vu votre 159:

Je viens de perdre un bon moment, utilisant le moteur de recherche et n'ai pas retrouve votre message seulement celui ou je reprenais l'expression en italique et entre guillemets, ce qui veut normalement dire que je cite directement. (la prochaine fois je ferai une reference directe au numero du message et/ou au fil, et repondrai des la premiere lecture du message au lieu de lire et repondre plus tard.

*1 la probite et l'honnetete intellectuelle: oui c'est un fait que
si l'on ecoute les anti-Bush, il est surprenant que Carl Rove ne se
promene pas avec des cornes sur la tete, une cape rouge et un trident.
mais bon. Les Bush haters n'ont-ils pas toujours discredite toutes les
personnes prochent de Pres. Bush Ou ce sont des imbeciles incultes ou
ce sont des montres prets a tout pour reussir : "mafia texane". (Pres Bush, lui etant, une fois l'un une fois l'autre, selon l'interet du moment!) - 135


Bon et bien ce n'est pas grave, ce n'est certainement pas la peine de perdre du temps la dessus. Je vous demandais une reponse tout simplement parce que je ne me rappellais pas avoir utilise le terme Mafia Texane. Ce n'est pas un terme que j'utilise, peut etre un autre participant ?

Je sais ne pas l'avoir inventee (n'ayant jamais entendu parler de mafia texane avant, il aurait fallu que je le fasse) et je me rappelle parfaitement de ma reaction de "disbelief" a la lecture. Toutefois, ne pouvant prouver ce que j'ai releve je retire toute reference que j'ai pu y faire et vous demande de bien vouloir l'excuser.

No problem.


En ce qui concerne votre "je n'ai pas dit qu'il n'avait pas menti"
Pas non plus, de message sur nouvelles en langue anglaise: ou depart de la conversation vous disiez ne pas souscrire a la these du mensonge ou quelque chose du genre. Ensuite, vous avez accepte le fait qu'il ait menti... mais

Je n'ai jamais nie le mensonge. J'ai repete par contre que toute cette histoire n'etait partie que d'un fait que je considere personnellement prive, que ce soit P. Jones, Lewinski ou autres et que si on n'avait pas ete fouiner dans les histoires privees, toute cette pathetique et chere histoire n'aurait pas eu lieu.

"Gne" je ne pense pas que ca ait jamais ete employe ici, on ne pourra plus le dire. Maintenant que vous l'expliquez, j'ai toutefois "vu" (car normalement accompagnee d'une grimace faciale et de mains atrophiees supposee rappeler une personne handicappee physique/mentale); un peu trop disons... juvenile pour moi. Mais maintenant je saurai pour la prochaine fois.

C'est un mot utilisee sur les discussions sur Internet surtout je pense dans les jeux. J'ai trop du trainer a cote de l'odinateur de mes enfants.....Aucune reference a un handicap mental ou physique, je ne me le permettrais pas ! C'est off limits.

Bonjour Shansaa

Nous sommes "cool" comme diraient egalement les enfants (enfin je crois, ayant pris de la distance avec leur petit monde temporairement et notre petit-fils etant encore trop jeune pour remettre mes pendules a l'heure)

Une chose ou nous devrons "agree to disagree", c'est que le proces Jones vs. clinton ait ete une affaire privee.

Il ne s'agissait pas de relations sexuelles entre adultes consentants (qui n'auraient regarde qu'Hillary, Bill et la ou les personnes concernees) mais de harcellement sexuel, offense qui tombe sous le coup de la loi. Ajoutez a cela, qu'il a ete prouve que Clinton, President des Etats Unis, a menti sous serment et bien evidemment, le scandale eclate.

Plusieurs femmes s'etaient plaintes de ses agissement elles ont ete discreditees et meme menacees. Clinton n'est pas une victime, les femmes qui sont harcelees par lui, le sont.

Re-bonjour Sylvette

Je savais bien que vous remettriez de l'ordre dans les N°, merci

Nous sommes "cool" comme diraient egalement les enfants (enfin je crois, ayant pris de la distance avec leur petit monde temporairement et notre petit-fils etant encore trop jeune pour remettre mes pendules a l'heure)

Ca va "reviendre", ne vous faites pas de soucis ! mais les expressions auront encore change, elles changent tres vite !!

Une chose ou nous devrons "agree to disagree", c'est que le proces Jones vs. clinton ait ete une affaire privee.

Done deal.

Bonne journee Enfin il refait moins froid et le soleil brille. Si vous etes toujours en Afrique et qu'il ne pleut pas dans votre region, profitez-en !!

Oui, et il y fait.... bon. Pas de pluie aujourd'hui.

Bonne fin de journee egalement

Daschle: Anything but ClintonBy

CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 1/8/09 11:55 AM EST

They might sit side-by-side in Barack Obama’s Cabinet room someday, but Tom Daschle didn’t much like Hillary Clinton’s tactics for fixing health care 15 years ago – so much so that he wrote a book critiquing them.

Now as Obama’s point-person on health care, Daschle’s approach is a simple philosophy of ABC – Anything But Clinton – that he’ll start to lay out at his confirmation hearing Thursday for secretary of health and human services.

Daschle wants an overhaul plan moving on Capitol Hill by spring. Clinton waited almost a full year. Daschle wants lawmakers to take the lead in drafting it. Clinton kept the job inside the White House.

Perhaps the biggest change: Daschle is planning a major grassroots push to build public support for his plan outside Washington, possibly with spokesman-in-chief Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN at the helm as surgeon general. Clinton let opponents carry the day with their famed “Harry and Louise” TV spots.

...

Palin: Media goes easy on Kennedy
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By ANDY BARR | 1/8/09 3:24 PM EST

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes Caroline Kennedy is getting softer press treatment in her pursuit of the New York Senate seat than Palin did as the GOP vice presidential nominee because of Kennedy’s social class.

“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope,” Palin told conservative filmmaker John Ziegler during an interview Monday for his upcoming documentary film, “How Obama Got Elected.” Excerpts from the interview were posted on YouTube Wednesday evening.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out and I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be.”

Palin said she remains subject to unfair press coverage of her and her family.

“Is it political? Is it sexism?” she asked. “What is it that drives someone to believe the worst and perpetuate the worst in terms of gossip and lies?”

She observed that Katie Couric and Tina Fey have been “capitalizing on” and “exploiting” her.

...

il etait question de ceux qui avaient paye pour l'election d'Obama.

Alors on prend les memes et on recommence...


JANUARY 9, 2009, 3:25 A.M. ET



Wall Street Is Big Donor to Inauguration



Obama Bans Funding From Corporations and Big Donors, but Financial Employees Put Up $5.7 Million



By CHRISTOPHER COOPER and BRODY MULLINS
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama has banned corporations and big donors from funding his Jan. 20 inauguration. But 90% of donations received so far have been raised by well-heeled fund-raisers, including Wall Street executives whose companies have received billions of dollars in federal bailout money.

A total of 207 fund-raisers have collected $24.8 million of the $27.3 million in contributions disclosed by Mr. Obama through Thursday, according to an analysis by nonpartisan campaign finance group Public Citizen commissioned by The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street employees, as a group, have been the biggest single source of these private donations, according to the analysis. Much of their donations -- $5.7 million total -- has been channeled through financial-services executives who each have bundled together donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

...

et on va venir nous faire pleurer sur l'economie? Imaginez une seconde qu'il s'agisse de McCain recevant ces montants de Wall Street! Combien parmi les Americains qui ne suivent pas la politique de tres pres le sauront?

a la Maison des Representants de l'Illinois. Maintenant, c'est au Senat de decider.

Les Democrates souhaitent voir cette situation resolue aussi rapidement que possible, on les comprend.

BlagojevichShrugs Off Impeachment, Vows to Fight to the End

Blagojevich said the 114-1 impeachment vote by the Illinois House of Representatives came as no surprise because of his clashes with lawmakers since his re-election in 2006.



FOXNews.com

Friday, January 09, 2009



...

"It's our duty to clean up the mess and stop the freak show that's become Illinois government," said Rep. Jack D. Franks, a Democrat.

POLITICO

By JIM VANDEHEI/MIKE ALLEN | 1/9/09 8:05 AM EST

Congressional Democrats are firing a surprising number of unexpectedly sharp brushback pitches at President-elect Barack Obama and his staff over policy plans and personnel picks, making him look embattled during what was to be a triumphant debut week in Washington.

The honeymoon isn’t over — the president-elect remains widely popular, even among some Republicans — and his Inauguration on Jan. 20 will be a signature event in the lifetime of most Americans, giving his opening days a greater lift and pop than any president since at least Ronald Reagan.

But as Obama buckled down his week heading a shadow government across Lafayette Park from the waning one in the White House, Democrats hit him with daily fast balls reflecting two realities: His team is smart but not perfect, and Democrats are supportive but not supine.
Consider:

• Obama ended his troubled search for CIA director by naming Leon Panetta. The immediate response: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) fired off a statement of disapproval, giving a negative tilt to most coverage of the pick.
• Obama floated his plan to name TV star Dr. Sanjay Gupta as surgeon general. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers didn’t even wait for the official announcement before leading a public campaign to kill the nomination. Gupta "lacks the relevant experience," Conyers wrote to colleagues

...

La ou est majoritairement ni puritain ni conservateur (JE BLAAAGUE!)

Baltimore Mayor Indicted for Perjury, Theft

Mayor Sheila Dixon allegedly went to Best Buy and spent gift cards for needy families on a digital camcorder and a PlayStation 2 controller, among other goods.



AP

Friday, January 09, 2009


BALTIMORE -- From Best Buy to Saks Fifth Avenue, from Old Navy to Giorgio Armani, prosecutors allege Mayor Sheila Dixon went shopping in a big way with other people's money.

Dixon was indicted Friday on 12 counts, including perjury and theft, mostly for activity that occurred while she was City Council president. And most of the charges against her suggest an affinity for both high-end and big-box retail.
At one point in December 2005, the indictment says, Dixon brazenly called an unnamed developer and hit him up for $500 worth of Best Buy gift cards, which she said would be donated to needy families.

Instead, five days later -- and a week before Christmas -- the future mayor allegedly strolled into a Best Buy in downtown Baltimore and spent 19 of the 20 gift cards, walking out with a digital camcorder and a PlayStation 2 controller, among other goods.

Similar scenarios played out several times, always around Christmas, always with gift cards that, at least in name, were supposed to be handed out to the poor, the indictment says.

...

Le silence ayant ete fait autour de cette affaire, Les electeurs de Baltimore ont revote pour elle. ET ca continue!

Au sujet de la dame

Apres nous avoir explique qu'il avait une solution a tout pendant la campagne electorale; que l'economie est pire que prevu quotidiennement comme pour placer des jalons avant d'emmenager a la Maison Blanche; il ne sera maintenant pas facile de remettre l'economie sur les rails...

Obama: No Easy Fix for Economy

Barack Obama sought to dampen public expectations that his $775 billion stimulus plan would jolt the economy out of recession

Obama Signals His Reluctance to Look Into Bush Policies

By DAVID JOHNSTON and CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: January 11, 2009

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama signaled in an interview broadcast Sunday that he was unlikely to authorize a broad inquiry into Bush administration programs like domestic eavesdropping or the treatment of terrorism suspects.

But Mr. Obama also said prosecutions would proceed if the Justice Department found evidence that laws had been broken.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama broadly condemned some counterterrorism tactics of the Bush administration and its claim that the measures were justified under executive powers. But his administration will face competing demands: pressure from liberals who want wide-ranging criminal investigations, and the need to establish trust among the country’s intelligence agencies. At the Central Intelligence Agency, in particular, many officers flatly oppose any further review and may protest the prospect of a broad inquiry into their past conduct.

In the clearest indication so far of his thinking on the issue, Mr. Obama said on the ABC News program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that there should be prosecutions if “somebody has blatantly broken the law” but that his legal team was still evaluating interrogation and detention issues and would examine “past practices.”
Mr. Obama added that he also had “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
“And part of my job,” he continued, “is to make sure that, for example, at the C.I.A., you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got spend their all their time looking over their shoulders.”

The Bush administration has authorized interrogation tactics like waterboarding that critics say skirted federal laws and international treaties, and domestic wiretapping without warrants. But the details of those programs have never been made public, and administration officials have said their actions were legal under a president’s wartime powers.
There was no immediate reaction from Capitol Hill, where there has been a growing sense that Mr. Obama was not inclined to pursue these matters. In resisting pressure for a wider inquiry, he risks the ire of influential Democratic lawmakers on Congressional judiciary and intelligence committees and core constituencies who hoped his election would cast a spotlight on President Bush’s antiterror efforts.

The issue will also be an important early test of his relationship with conservatives in Congress and the country’s intelligence agencies; both groups oppose any further review.

On other terrorism issues, Mr. Obama suggested in the interview that his approach might be more measured. He said the closing of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which once seemed to be an early top objective, was not likely to happen during the first 100 days of his administration.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize,” Mr. Obama said, “and we are going to get it done. But part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous, who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication.”

Mr. Obama has in the past condemned waterboarding, and he was explicit in the interview that he regarded the use of the technique, in which a subject is made to believe that he is drowning, as torture, prohibited by statute. And the president-elect said he disagreed with Vice President Dick Cheney, who has defended the practice.
“Vice President Cheney, I think, continues to defend what he calls extraordinary measures or procedures when it comes to interrogations,” Mr. Obama said, “and from my view, waterboarding is torture.”

Mr. Obama’s choice for attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., is widely expected to be asked about his views on these issues at his confirmation hearing this week. Associates say Mr. Holder is open to prosecutions based on specific accusations but is less eager to use the criminal law to commence wide-ranging inquiries. Before being chosen for the Obama cabinet, he said there should be “a reckoning” over Bush administration policies.

Lawyers who represented Bush administration officials over the years expressed little surprise that Mr. Obama’s legal and national security team had lost whatever appetite it might have had for delving into alleged misdeeds of the Bush years.

“A new president doesn’t want to look vengeful,” said a former Bush White House lawyer, Bradford A. Berenson, who was a Harvard law classmate of Mr. Obama and has represented administration figures as a private lawyer, “and the last thing a new administration wants to do is spend its time and energy rehashing the perceived sins of the old one.
“No matter how much the Obama administration’s most extreme supporters may be screaming for blood, the president himself doesn’t seem to share that bloodlust.”

Moreover, any effort to conduct a wider re-examination would almost certainly provoke a backlash at the country’s intelligence agencies.

Mark Lowenthal, who was the assistant director for analysis and production at the C.I.A. from 2002 to 2005, said if agents were criminally investigated for doing something that top Bush administration officials asked them to do and that they were assured was legal, intelligence officers would be less willing to take risks to protect the country.

“There are just huge costs to the day-to-day operation of intelligence,” Mr. Lowenthal, now the president of the Intelligence and Security Academy, said of a potential investigation. He added that he saw no benefit to such an effort because, he said, the public was not clamoring for it.

But it may be difficult for Mr. Obama to resist the pressure for a fuller public accounting, and lawmakers appear ready to proceed even without his support.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, has already introduced a measure to create a commission to investigate Mr. Bush’s detention, interrogation and rendition policies. Mr. Conyers’s bill would establish a bipartisan nine-member commission with subpoena power and a mandate “to investigate the broad range of policies” undertaken with claims that Mr. Bush’s wartime powers as commander in chief trumped laws and treaties.

The measure by Mr. Conyers is not the only sign that Congress may force the issue. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the second-ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, said such a commission might not be necessary because the panel itself would press the administration to declassify as much information about C.I.A. prisons as possible.

“With regard to the C.I.A. interrogation program,” Mr. Wyden said in an interview, “if you want to make a break with the flawed policies of the past, as the president-elect has said he wishes to do, you have got to come clean about what happened over the past eight years, and that is why I’m going to push very hard to declassify these documents.”

Mr. Obama’s legal team could also be forced to react to litigation pending before federal courts. For example, the Bush administration has invoked the state-secrets privilege to avoid disclosing information about its surveillance program being sought in a civil lawsuit. The Obama legal team will have to decide how to handle that case.
In a related area, Mr. Conyers has indicated that he intends to keep pressing a House Judiciary Committee investigation into the Bush administration’s firings of nine United States attorneys and other accusations of political favoritism in hiring at the Justice Department.

The Bush administration has blocked subpoenas from Congress for documents and testimony by White House officials in that case, citing executive privilege. Last week, Mr. Conyers reissued the subpoenas to Mr. Bush’s chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, and his former White House counsel, Harriet E. Miers, in the name of the new Congress, ensuring that a lawsuit over the dispute will stay alive into the Obama presidency.

Mr. Obama is facing even more intense pressure from liberal, human-rights and civil-liberties groups to allow some kind of investigation into the Bush administration’s terrorism policies.

Chris Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said it would be a simple matter to start such an inquiry because the Justice Department’s special prosecutor, John H. Durham, is already investigating whether the C.I.A. acted illegally when it destroyed videotapes of its harsh interrogations. Mr. Anders said Mr. Durham’s mandate could be expanded to look into whether the interrogations depicted on the tapes were illegal.
Some groups are focused on prosecution. Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said prosecution efforts were justified, even if they did not lead to convictions, as a way to deter future officials from undertaking a similar “assault on the law itself.”

Other groups want fuller public disclosure. They favor a commission that would answer lingering questions about exactly what happened — like disclosing how many Americans were wiretapped without warrants and making a detailed accounting of what interrogators did to each detainee and the real value of the information they obtained through the enhanced tactics.

“One of the things that is going to have to happen is an examination and, to the extent possible, a public airing of the validity of the claims that these policies enhanced our security,” said Elisa Massimino, the executive director of Human Rights First. “Because there is a lot of reason to think that calculus hasn’t been accurate.”

Avant et par dessus tout, le devoir d'un president est de faire tout en son pouvoir pour proteger le pays qu'il gouverne. C'est d'autant plus vrai depuis 2001.

Nous voyons a nouveau, la difference entre la rhetorique d'une campagne electorale et la realite de la presidence.

Conference de Presse de Pres. Bush

Reflective Bush Warns Obama of Attacks Against Nation, Criticism Facing President

In his last press conference at the White House, President Bush said keeping the homeland safe will be the new president's biggest challenge, but he won't stand over Barack Obama to tell him how to do it.


FOXNews.com

Monday, January 12, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The weight of the presidency will hit Barack Obama as soon as he enters the Oval Office, President Bush said Monday, warning the president-elect about attacks against America as well as attacks against him personally.

Speaking at his last press conference before leaving office, a reflective Bush urged Obama not to fall prey to critics and gave some rare insights into the job of the presidency and expectations for the next president.

He said that the criticism Obama will face is diminished in light of the "profound" nature of the job.
"He's going to have to do what he thinks is right. And if you don't, I don't see how you can live with yourself. I don't see how I can get back home in Texas and look in the mirror and be proud of what I see if I allowed the loud voices, the loud critics, to -- to prevent me from doing what I thought was necessary to protect this country," he said.
"On the other hand, the job is so exciting and the position so profound that the disappointments will be clearly a minority irritant," the president added.

As for threats to the nation, Bush said Obama faces serious enemies who "would like to inflict damage" on Americans and is confronted by an economy that began experiencing problems even before Bush's presidency.
"The most urgent threat that he'll have to deal with and other presidents after him will have to deal with is an attack on our homeland. You know, I wish I could report that's not the case ... and that'll be the major threat," he said.

...

Bush also said he shouldn't have allowed a "Mission Accomplished" sign to go up on the aircraft carrier in May 2003 after major "combat operations" ended in Iraq. He said he was disappointed by the situation in Abu Ghraib and wishes that the war had borne out the intelligence claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

...

"Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,00 people pulled off stomrs right after the storm passed ... it's a pretty quick response," he said, adding that some things could have been done differently.

...

He added that if he had wanted to be popular in some corners of the world he could have chosen to sign on to the Kyoto global warming treaty or joined the International Criminal Court or condemned Israel for the condition of Palestinians in the Middle East. But he said that would have been antithetical to the aspirations and goals of the United States.

...

"I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged.
It may be damaged amongst some of the elite. But people still understand America stands for freedom; that America is a country that provides such great hope," he said.

Bush said that had he listened to critics who wanted to shut down the detention center on Guantanamo Bay, he would have risked the nation's safety

"In terms of the decisions that I had made to protect the homeland, I wouldn't worry about popularity. What I would worry about is the Constitution of the United States and putting plans in place that makes it easier to find out what the enemy is thinking," he said. Because all these debates will matter naught if there's another attack on the homeland. The question won't be, you know, 'Were you critical of this plan or not?' The question's going to be, 'Why didn't you do something?'"

...

WOW! et la presse disait que Pres. Bush etait manipule!

AP: Obama to Issue Order Closing Gitmo During First Week in Office

President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to issue order his first week in office to close Guantanamo Bay.

AP

Monday, January 12, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to issue an executive order his first week in office -- and perhaps his first day -- to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, according to two presidential transition team advisers.
It's unlikely the detention facility at the Navy base in Cuba will be closed anytime soon. In an interview last weekend, Obama said it would be "a challenge" to close it even within the first 100 days of his administration.

But the order, which one adviser said could be issued as early as Jan. 20, would start the process of deciding what to do with the estimated 250 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held there. Most have not been charged with a crime.

The Guantanamo directive would be one of a series of executive orders Obama is planning to issue shortly after he takes office next Tuesday, according to the two advisers. Also expected is an executive order about certain interrogation methods, but details were not immediately available Monday.
The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the orders that have not yet been finalized.

Obama transition team spokeswoman Brooke Anderson declined comment Monday.
The two advisers said the executive order will direct the new administration to look at each of the cases of the Guantanamo detainees to see whether they can be released or if they should still be held -- and if so, where.

...

"That's a challenge," Obama said on ABC's "This Week." "I think it's going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do.
"But I don't want to be ambiguous about this," he said. "We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our constitution."
President George W. Bush established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at Guantanamo. He also supports closing the prison, but strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States.

En fait en lisant la fin de l'article, c'est uniquement pour calmer les esprits chez la goche!