Thursday, August 06, 2009

Sunday Laws approaching...


Sunday-Law Advocates

Do Not Realize What They Are Doing


The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness. The leaders are concealing the true issue, and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whither the undercurrent is tending. . . .
126
They are working in blindness. They do not see that if a Protestant government sacrifices the principles that have made them a free, independent nation, and through legislation brings into the Constitution principles that will propagate papal falsehood and papal delusion, they are plunging into the Roman horrors of the Dark Ages.--RH Extra, Dec. 11, 1888. {LDE 125.3}

There are many, even of those engaged in this movement for Sunday enforcement, who are blinded to the results which will follow this action. They do not see that they are striking directly against religious liberty. There are many who have never understood the claims of the Bible Sabbath and the false foundation upon which the Sunday institution rests. . . . {LDE 126.1}

Those who are making an effort to change the Constitution and secure a law enforcing Sunday observance little realize what will be the result. A crisis is just upon us.--5T 711, 753 (1889). {LDE 126.2}


Not to Sit in Quietude, Doing Nothing

It is our duty to do all in our power to avert the threatened danger. . . . A vast responsibility is devolving upon men and women of prayer throughout the land to petition that God may sweep back this cloud of evil, and give a few more years of grace to work for the Master.--RH Extra, Dec. 11, 1888. {LDE 126.3}

Those who are now keeping the commandments of God need to bestir themselves that they may obtain the special help which God alone can give them. They
127
should work more earnestly to delay as long as possible the threatened calamity.--RH Dec. 18, 1888. {LDE 126.4}

Let not the commandment-keeping people of God be silent at this time as though we gracefully accepted the situation.--7BC 975 (1889). {LDE 127.1}

We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience. Fervent, effectual prayer should be ascending to heaven that this calamity may be deferred until we can accomplish the work which has so long been neglected. Let there be most earnest prayer and then let us work in harmony with our prayers.--5T 714 (1889). {LDE 127.2}

There are many who are at ease, who are, as it were, asleep. They say, "If prophecy has foretold the enforcement of Sunday observance the law will surely be enacted," and having come to this conclusion they sit down in a calm expectation of the event, comforting themselves with the thought that God will protect His people in the day of trouble. But God will not save us if we make no effort to do the work He has committed to our charge. . . . {LDE 127.3}

As faithful watchmen you should see the sword coming and give the warning, that men and women may not pursue a course through ignorance that they would avoid if they knew the truth.--RH Extra, Dec. 24, 1889. {LDE 127.4}


Oppose Sunday Laws by Pen and Vote

We cannot labor to please men who will use their
influence to repress religious liberty and to set in
128
operation oppressive measures to lead or compel their fellow men to keep Sunday as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is not a day to be reverenced. It is a spurious sabbath, and the members of the Lord's family cannot participate with the men who exalt this day and violate the law of God by trampling upon His Sabbath. The people of God are not to vote to place such men in office, for when they do this they are partakers with them of the sins which they commit while in office.--FE 475 (1899). {LDE 127.5}

I do hope that the trumpet will give a certain sound in regard to this Sunday-law movement. I think that it would be best if in our papers the subject of the perpetuity of the law of God were made a specialty. . . . We should now be doing our very best to defeat this Sunday law.--CW 97, 98 (1906). {LDE 128.1}



Last Day Events, E.G. W., pp.125-128.

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Senate confirms Sotomayor, first Hispanic on Supreme Court


Senate confirms Sotomayor, first Hispanic on Supreme Court
Thu Aug 6, 2009 3:27pm EDT

By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Judge Sonia Sotomayor won U.S. Senate approval on Thursday to become the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Democratic-led Senate voted largely along party lines, 68-31, to approve President Barack Obama's nomination of Sotomayor for the lifetime appointment on the highest U.S. court.
The large number of Republican "no" votes reflected the party's resistance to the Democratic president on several fronts including his bid to overhaul healthcare.
When sworn in, Sotomayor, 55, a federal appeals judge in New York since 1998, will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the 220-year-old Supreme Court.
"Another barrier has been broken in American life," said Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who voted for Sotomayor, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was born in poverty.
Democrats hailed Sotomayor as fair-minded but Republicans charged she lacked impartiality.
Critics had zeroed in on her past comments that a "wise Latina" woman might reach a better decision than a white man.
At her confirmation hearing Sotomayor, a federal judge for 17 years, offered no apology but said a jurist had to guard against internal prejudice.
QUESTIONS REMAIN
In replacing retired Justice David Souter, Sotomayor is not expected to change the court's ideological balance. Souter sided with the liberal wing of the court, which in recent years often issued 5-4 rulings in favor of conservatives.
If history holds true, it may take years to determine what sort of justice she will be.
The appointment underscores an effort by Obama, six months in office, to move the court to the left after eight years of rightward pushing by his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush.
As a senator, Obama voted against Bush's two successful Supreme Court nominees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
The Supreme Court is the final judicial arbiter and rules on matters from abortion and gun rights to anti-trust laws, the death penalty and civil rights.
In opposing Sotomayor, Republicans risk a backlash from her fellow Hispanics, the fastest growing U.S. minority.
Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, a major Hispanic civil rights group, said: "This vote will matter -- and it will be long remembered."
Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. population and voted by a two-to-one margin for Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
But Republicans seemed unconcerned. They said many Hispanics were conservatives and more interested in such issues as jobs and the economy.


(Editing by Howard Goller)




.
P.S.The headlines "SHOULD" read:

"Senate confirms Sotomayor, one more Roman Catholic on Supreme Court"


It's a sad day in history! "The beginning of the end", to paraphrase Obama.


.

America, meet your patron saint!



On the occassion of the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court;

5 +1=6. I thought it's appropriate that everyone becomes better acquainted with Roman Catholic Dogma, and meet their patron saint.

The patron saint of the U.S.A. is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, under her title, "Immaculate Conception." That is why the National Shrine (in Washington, D.C.) is the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in the nation.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002WWk


In 1792, John Carroll, the bishop of Baltimore and America's first Roman Catholic bishop, consecrated the newly-created United States under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of The Immaculate Conception. In 1847, Pope Pius IX formalized Carroll's acclamation, proclaiming the
Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of the United States.
In
subsequent years, priests imagined an elaborate shrine in honor of their
country's patroness
. Bishop
Thomas Joseph Shahan, the fourth rector of the Catholic University of America proposed the construction of a national shrine to
commemorate the Immaculate Conception in the country's capital. Bishop Shahan
took his appeal to
Pope Pius X on August 15, 1913. Shahan received
the pope's enthusiastic support and his personal contribution of $400. Shahan
returned to the United States and persuaded the Board of Trustees of the
Catholic University of America to donate land at the southwest corner of the
campus for his shrine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_the_National_Shrine_of_the_Immaculate_Conception


Just thought I would mention these little knonw facts. This information will come in handy real soon. Welcome to the new and improved New World Order (aka Old World Order in the new world with a Global emphasis), it's been centuries in the making.

We've finally come home to mama!

How do you like your masses, in English or Latin? One or two lumps?

Now, let's go solve the world's problems; Give until it hurts! We are so blessed!


We're more than one billion strong!

cakes to the queen of heaven




Jeremiah 7




1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

2Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

3Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.

5For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

6If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

7Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

10And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

11Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

12But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

13And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;

14Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

15And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

16Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

17Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

19Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

20Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

21Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

22For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

23But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

24But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

25Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

26Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

27Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.

28But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

29Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

31And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

32Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.

33And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

34Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.


The Decider by Michael Crowley

The New Republic
The Decider by Michael Crowley
Who runs U.S. foreign policy?

Post Date Wednesday, August 12, 2009



On the evening of Saturday, June 13, a day after the Iranian presidential election, Vice President Joe Biden was preparing for an appearance the next morning on NBC's "Meet the Press." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian incumbent, was already claiming a preposterously large margin of victory, and reformist protesters were clashing with basiij thugs in Tehran. The Obama administration faced a delicate and fluid situation, and it was far from clear what Biden should say. In circumstances like these, the vice president--especially this vice president--could not simply wing it. The administration needed to present a united front buttressed by clear talking points.

In the normal course of Washington events, the creation of talking points often involves several aides, who bicker and rewrite for hours until they've come up with a simple message for their boss. In the Bush administration, that process might have been perverted so that the vice president was telling his nominal boss what to say. But the Obama administration apparently operates differently. Rather than calling in his top foreign policy aides or formulating a stance that advanced his own agenda, Biden turned directly to Barack Obama. "The vice president said, 'What do you want me to say?' And the president and the vice president sat down and did them together," explains a senior White House aide. "And then they presented them to us."

When Obama came to office six months ago, he seemed likely to be consumed by domestic politics: The economy was on the brink of collapse, and health care and global warming bills were urgent priorities. His high-powered foreign policy team, led by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and a holdover defense secretary in Robert Gates, suggested that Obama was prepared to outsource the management of world affairs to people with something more than his four years of experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Indeed, the composition of his diplomatic team--filled with egos as large as Richard Holbrooke's--suggested that, even if the president wanted to personally manage foreign policy, he wouldn't be able to.

Six months later, however, these assumptions have been shattered. Whether he is shaping the White House's message on Iran, or personally cajoling Asian leaders to crack down on North Korea, or brokering power deals among NATO allies, Obama has, in effect, been his own national security advisor and secretary of state. Unlike Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, who had world events thrust upon them, Obama seems to be more in the mold of Richard Nixon or George H.W. Bush--a president involved in foreign policy because of, not in spite of, his priorities and personal interest. "He's very engaged, very hands-on," says his longtime foreign policy adviser, Mark Lippert, now chief of staff at the National Security Council (NSC).

Obama brought to the presidency a set of clear strategic goals: He wanted to engage Iran and restart negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians; he wanted to pull back from Iraq and ramp up efforts in Afghanistan; he wanted to reach out to the Muslim world and burnish America's reputation abroad. But, when you talk to the president's senior staff, you find that, much as they like touting Obama's wisdom on the global chessboard, they are just as proud of how his administration has handled the process of foreign policy. They are the ultimate organization men and women.

To this administration, process is not simply the poor cousin of strategy. Process is what allows harmony and progress amid multiple challenges and viewpoints. Senior Obama aides call it "regular order"--a system that gives the president a diversity of views with minimal infighting and back-channel maneuvering, little leaking to the press, and no public airing of dirty laundry. "Regular order is your friend," says Denis McDonough, director of strategic communications for the NSC. "The system only works if you have adult behavior."

Thus far, the system has confounded skeptics who predicted melees among big-name advisers and conservatives who warned that Obama lacked the experience to govern in such dangerous times. "The level of harmony is just striking," says James Goldgeier, a national security aide in the Clinton White House and a political scientist at George Washington University. There are signs, however, that the administration's approach to foreign policy, however well-intentioned and well-executed, is vulnerable to unexpected challenges--the very kind that are likely to multiply the longer the president is in office.

You might call the president's fixation on process the latest iteration of "No Drama Obama"--a continuation of the radical discipline Obama's team honed during the 2008 campaign, when the candidate required his advisers to hash out debates in structured internal settings and, then, to fully support his final decision. Certainly, it served Obama well in comparison to his chief rival, Hillary Clinton, whose campaign degenerated into bitter (and all-too-publicized) infighting.

Colin Powell once called the national security apparatus "a manifestation of the personality of the president." That observation holds for Obama. But this administration's emphasis on process goes beyond the president's character. It is also a function of lessons learned from the office's previous occupants. Consider Bill Clinton. In the fall of 1993, Clinton's national security team was a mess. Like Obama today, the new president was focused on the economy and plans for a major overhaul of health care. Communism had collapsed, and foreign hotspots were relatively few and far between, but even so, many of the president's foreign policy advisers were unsure of themselves and what the president wanted from them. "I confess," then-National Security Advisor Tony Lake wrote in a longhand memo to Clinton, "to a series of constant and growing frustrations--partly at the interagency difficulties in pushing through new approaches as hard times bring out new hesitancies and partly with a White House that ... still treats foreign policy as [a] 'wholly owned subsidiary.'" The result was a series of first-year fiascos--from gays in the military, to the "Black Hawk Down" episode in Somalia, to a poorly managed crisis in Haiti. By October 1993, Clinton was openly berating Lake in the Oval Office.

Despite the ostensibly all-star team that George W. Bush brought to the White House--or, perhaps, because of it--his administration was plagued by similar dysfunction. For eight years, hawks like Dick Cheney, John Bolton, and Donald Rumsfeld fought to undercut the more pragmatic policies pushed by Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and the diplomatic corps. During the Iraq war, relations between Rice and Rumsfeld reportedly deteriorated to the point where the secretary of defense had to be ordered to return the national security advisor's phone calls. Cheney assembled a staff of more than a dozen foreign policy advisers in what amounted to his own shadow national security council. The result was a schizoid approach to some of the most important security issues facing the president, including postwar planning and pre-war intelligence related to Saddam Hussein's nuclear program and Al Qaeda ties.

Partly as a result, the Obama team set out to create a strong national security team with power centralized in the White House. When George W. Bush took office in 2001, then-National Security Advisor Rice sought to whittle the NSC staff by a third. By contrast, Obama's national security advisor, Jim Jones, set out to empower the NSC. On February 23, Obama signed Presidential Directive 1, dramatically expanding the NSC to include several new cabinet officials in the council's principals meetings, including the attorney general, the secretaries of energy and homeland security, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In its early months, Obama's team has only redoubled its belief in regular order, thanks in part to what it--and others--saw as an early failure. After the president signed a January order calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, top White House officials, including chief counsel Greg Craig and counterterrorism advisor John Brennan, began an extensive review of how to deal with the 240 foreign detainees still held there. In April, word leaked that Obama might seek to resettle in the United States several Chinese Uighurs at Guantanamo who had been deemed not to be a terrorist threat. Discussions of the Uighurs had reached the senior-most levels of the NSC process, including a principals meeting attended by cabinet secretaries. The White House had carefully considered the legal and security implications of such a move--but, contrary to standard operating procedure, it had not adequately prepared members of Congress, some of whom say they were promised ample warning about any resettlements in the United States and then blindsided by the news leaks.

The fallout was fast and furious. Members of Congress, including senior Democrats like Harry Reid, grandstanded as anti-terrorism tough guys and vowed that no "terrorists" would ever be allowed on U.S. soil. Never mind the lack of realistic options for placing dozens of detainees elsewhere and the possibility that closing Gitmo might now take more than a year. The controversy was a huge setback for administration officials trying to convince allies abroad that it's safe to take in "cleared" Guantanamo detainees. White House national security officials say that, when it comes to Guantanamo, their initial process failed. "We got outside regular order," explains McDonough.

But the Gitmo snafu is the exception that proves the rule. In general, Obama's team has unfurled its policy initiatives with surprising smoothness. In mid-March, top administration officials, including Obama, Jones, Biden, Clinton, Holbrooke, and military leaders, conducted a 90-minute debate about troop levels in Afghanistan. Biden led a group pressing for limited troop deployments and a narrow counterterrorism mission focused squarely on Al Qaeda. Clinton and Holbrooke argued for a more ambitious counterinsurgency mission and a civilian surge to stabilize Afghanistan. Obama ultimately synthesized the two views into a middle course, delivering an address describing the U.S. mission as narrowly focused on hunting terrorists--but also vowing to add 4,000 troops to train Afghan forces and to improve civil society in Afghanistan. Although the broad contours of the internal debate would later leak into the media, there was no public evidence of second-guessing or wounded pride, and the Obama team has since supported the policy with remarkable uniformity.

There is some irony in the Obama administration's harmonious foreign policy-making, given that the man ostensibly coordinating it--Jim Jones--has been the target of a whisper campaign about his job performance. His critics say the former Marine general is aloof from the White House bustle, bicycling home to McLean for lunch, and, at times, even forgetful. The chatter grew loud enough that Secretary Gates felt obliged to offer public words of support for Jones. ("He only works twelve hours a day," says one angry Jones defender outside the White House. "He's not trying to burnish his resume like every other asshole." Jones told me that he pays little attention to press coverage and he doesn't feel the need to demonstrate his influence, although he adds that sometimes, he will linger after a meeting to put a thought in the president's ear "after everyone else does.")


But Jones's disfavor has been overstated. Though he lacks the close personal bond with Obama enjoyed by former campaign aides like McDonough and Lippert, he is at the president's side in nearly every important foreign policy meeting--from his audience with the Pope to his sit-down with Vladimir Putin. Obama's self-confidence allows Jones to be less assertive than some of his predecessors. And, as a military man, Jones shares Obama's strong belief in process. In a May 27 speech to the Atlantic Council, Jones joked that he was still trying to impose military-style discipline on some subordinates. "I'm finding that an order is a basis for negotiation," Jones joked."But we're getting there."

Earlier this month, when I visited Jones in his corner office, which is spacious only by the cramped standards of the White House, he was reading a black briefing binder, which he quickly snapped shut. A large American flag hung from a tall pole by his desk. His computer monitor was in screen saver mode: solid bright green, with the black letters TOP SECRET SCI slowly scrolling past. Jones, wearing a jacket, tan pants, and brown tasseled loafers, spoke with a quiet, almost laconic, manner. He explained the value the Obama team places on internal harmony between the government's disparate cabinets and agencies, from State to the Pentagon to the CIA, when making decisions. What about the "team of rivals"? I asked. "The people he picked are working hard to make sure it didn't work out that way," he replied. Obama takes care to ensure that everyone feels their voice is heard, Jones said, thereby minimizing the risk that the disgruntled loser of a policy fight will go to the press with dissenting views or try to subvert the process. "The process is extraordinarily inclusive," Jones explained. "No one gets left out."

More than anyone, that mandate falls to Jones's deputy, Tom Donilon. While Jones oversees the national security structure from above, it is Donilon who spends the most time sitting down with lesser-known officials from across the government to flesh out policy options before they reach the Oval Office. "He's the key guy setting the parameters of national security policy discussion and decision-making," says one person familiar with the NSC system. Even more so than Jones, in fact, Donilon is foremost a process guy. A lawyer by training, Donilon made his name as a political operative under Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale--"a fierce partisan," says a friend--later playing key roles in Joe Biden's 1988 and 2008 presidential bids. When, in the Clinton administration, his law-firm colleague Warren Christopher became secretary of state, Donilon followed him to Foggy Bottom as Christopher's chief of staff. Today, Donilon leads what in government parlance are known as "deputies meetings," in which second-tier officials coordinate policies and hash out competing positions before either reaching decisions or kicking issues up the chain to "principals meetings"--which usually feature cabinet secretaries, Jones, and Biden. In a busy stretch, Donilon might lead as many as four deputies meetings in one day. Afghanistan is a topic of a standing weekly meeting in the White House basement situation room.

As a veteran of Bill Clinton's administration, Donilon has been instrumental in helping the Obama team avoid the early pitfalls of the last Democratic presidency. "It took a while for that White House to get its sea legs in terms of process," says one senior Obama White House aide. Under Obama, explains the aide, the NSC makes a deal with the administration personnel who plead their policy cases at the White House: Debates will be transparent and open, with quick and crisp decisions, and--in a new innovation--meeting summaries are distributed widely and within 24 hours to ensure no one is left in the dark. In return, deputies who lose arguments must promise not to pull end-runs around the system.

So far it has worked. Take the example of Richard Holbrooke, whose famed bureaucratic maneuvering and media-friendliness runs directly counter to Obama's no-drama ethos. Six months in, Holbrooke has caused surprisingly little trouble. He reports directly to Hillary Clinton, doesn't visit the White House without her (one known exception being when Clinton fell and broke her elbow in a State Department garage, but granted Holbrooke permission to carry on without her), and has generally deferred to her in the meetings there. True, Holbrooke has tussled with Douglas Lute, who oversees the military campaign in Afghanistan at the NSC, over establishing benchmarks for progress in that country. And, in at least one instance earlier this year, Holbrooke received an angry phone call from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel after the diplomat was perceived to have stepped on Obama's public message about the war effort. But, in general, one administration foreign policy official says, "He hasn't acted like a showboat. He's kept a low profile. By his standards, he's a pussycat!" A small triumph of process.
The administration's emphasis on process would not work, however, if Obama did not have a clear sense of where he wanted to take foreign policy and the confidence to put himself in charge of it. He was, for example, up-front from the outset about his desire for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, and one former Bush administration official who worked on Middle East policy and remains in touch with officials overseas says that Obama seems to be personally driving the early effort to restart the peace process. "The president is quite involved," says the former Bush official. "It's not being done by [George] Mitchell, who every of couple months reports in. It is being managed by the president, who gives him instructions."

From the start, Obama has played the role of global leader with a certain relish. On his first trip overseas, an April visit to nato's annual summit in Strasbourg, Obama confronted an unexpected diplomatic snafu. Turkey was blocking the choice of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to become nato secretary general. Obama sprang into action, conducting unscripted meetings with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, and, then, later brought Gul and Rasmussen together. His intervention, coupled with a promise that Rasmussen would appoint a Turkish deputy, broke the deadlock. At a similar point in his presidency, George W. Bush may still have been relying on flashcards to learn foreign leaders' names. "This is just something he's naturally good at," Jones told me.

You hear that a lot from Obama's advisers. Unlike Clinton and Bush 43 during their first years, Obama doesn't seem to doubt himself or question his own authority when it comes to matters of state. "He's not intimidated by the foreign policy apparatus," says Lippert. He has created a system in which internal debate is open and, rather than accept prepackaged policy options, he can personally test his advisers' theories and assumptions. At times, some officials say, Obama can seem as though he understands the issues as well as--or better than--some of the experts around him. "He's very comfortable in feeling that he 'gets it,'" says another senior administration official, "and maybe he's better about crystallizing and encapsulating than others might be."

Of course, Obama has thus far enjoyed the luxury of managing a generally proactive foreign policy. He has mainly pursued a strategic vision he devised as a presidential candidate. He has reaffirmed his desire to leave Iraq, delivered on his promise to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, spoken in Prague about his vision for a world without nuclear weapons, reached out to Iran through his March Nowruz message, and extended a hand to the Muslim world with an address in Cairo. "These are things the president said he would do in the campaign," says Ben Rhodes, a NSC speechwriter and policy adviser. In that sense, what Obama has needed, at least to date, is not so much strategists as implementers, process men like Donilon and Jones who can coordinate the government around his agenda.

RELATED CONTENT
TNR Slideshow: "The Deciders" (7/30/09)
Tanenhaus: "The Imperial Vice Presidency" (11/19/08)
Katyal: "Counsel, Legal and Illegal" (11/9/07)

The unanswered question is how Obama's confidence and emphasis on process will serve him in the months and years to come, as he begins to reap the fruits--or a lack thereof--of his strategic vision. Process only works if the assumptions underlying the strategy it is meant to implement are correct, but, as nations begin to respond to Obama's initiatives, those assumptions may be tested--from Jerusalem to Moscow. Already, we have seen one hitch in the Obama model: Iran.

If the talking points that Obama and Biden crafted after the Iranian election revealed the novelty of the administration's approach to foreign policy, they also revealed its limits. The vice president's first reaction to the popular uprising in Tehran was cautious--"we don't have enough facts ... to make a firm judgment," Biden said--as was Obama's public commentary in the days to come, including his assertion that little substantive difference exists between Ahmadinejad and his opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi. It was only after Iranian regime goons had been beating and killing protesters for days that Obama took a harder line, calling the crackdown "unjust" and invoking Martin Luther King Jr.'s "arc of the moral universe." With his evolving and notably mild response, Obama and his foreign policy advisers appeared for the first time to be unsure of themselves. One senior administration official, while defending Obama's response, acknowledged that it was fair to question how the White House had handled the election fallout. "We're in uncharted waters," the official says.

That much is clear. But Obama's team thought it had the waters well-charted. A thorough administration review of Iran policy lasted from January into the spring. It considered the possibility of dialogue and the prospects for economic sanctions. But it never foresaw an anti-regime uprising. ("The Iranians themselves were surprised by this," notes the official. "They certainly wouldn't have had 500 reporters there if they weren't.") The chaos from Tehran to Shiraz challenged the early model of Obama's foreign policy in two ways. First, it tested the limits of the administration's vaunted process. White House officials boast that Obama makes "crisp" decisions. But his response after the Iranian election was rather soggy. It's not precisely clear why. Had he been too wedded to a policy of engagement that had emerged from a very deliberate process? His statement quoting King sounded more convincing, more like the authentic Obama, than did his earlier notes of caution, suggesting that, in this case, neither process nor his instincts had served him well.

Perhaps more significantly, the Iranian uprising defied the simplicity of implementing Obama's strategic vision. Obama believed he could reverse the Bush administration's course and negotiate with Tehran over its nuclear program. But the difficulty of that approach has now been amply demonstrated. Not only did Ahmadinejad fail to respond to the president's initial overtures, but talking to him now could be seen as lending legitimacy to a contested regime with blood on its hands.

However much of a "natural" he may be, there are clear limits to Obama's confidence in managing foreign affairs. "He knows what he doesn't know," says Lippert. That may be why Obama recently bolstered his NSC team, transferring Dennis Ross, a veteran Middle East negotiator and the administration's current point man on Iran, from the State Department to the NSC. Obama is said to have wanted more strategic depth on his White House team, but also some added tactical prowess. (Obama was reportedly also disappointed that a June stop in Riyadh yielded no gestures toward Israel from the Saudi royals and wanted someone with Ross's experience in the region closer to his side as he manages the Middle East peace process.)

An awareness of those limitations is probably well-advised. For, in the months to come, there will be, of course, many more crises. The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq may not go smoothly. Whether Afghanistan can be tamed and Pakistan can be stabilized are open questions. North Korea remains intractable. Al Qaeda could strike again at any time. At this point in 2001, George W. Bush was just receiving a memo about Osama bin Laden's intention to strike the United States.

For now, says one former Clinton administration official closely versed in current U.S. foreign policy, Obama is maintaining order by "playing that role of the genius foreign policy president. And, as long as he does that, this system can work. But the biggest problem out there is that it is extremely difficult to imagine that even Barack Obama can keep up this juggling act for four or eight years. He is going to get distracted." White House officials say that they have explicitly planned for the stress that a major and extended crisis abroad will place on their policy-making structure. But some acknowledge that it's impossible to know whether they are truly prepared. "There is a definite humility and cognizance that, while things have gone well so far, there will be big tests," says one senior White House aide. "At some point, maybe sooner rather than later we're going to screw up mightily on something, and then we'll see how everyone reacts."

Michael Crowley is a senior editor of The New Republic.




© The New Republic 2009
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P.S. Notice the name of the author of this article: Michael Crowley.
Is this just a coincidence that his name is Crowley?
Is this just synchronicity?
Or, just a fluke?
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Crowley
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Aleister Crowley, O.T.O., AA, Secret Society, Magick, Mystery Schools ...He attended Trinity College at Cambridge University. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to George Cecil Jones, who was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was an Occult Society and Mystery School led by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, which taught Magick, Qabalah, Alchemy, Tarot, Astrology, and other Hermetic subjects.
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Wow, how much coincidence can you cram into a couple of weeks?...................Arsenio.
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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Bill Clinton’s North Korea Mission



Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 10:00 AM EDT


Bill Clinton’s North Korea Mission

In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service in Tokyo, former U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Tuesday. (AP)


The Obama administration dispatched Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to meet the North Korean dictator, pose for the propaganda shot, and bring out American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

The job done, the White House put to rest all the Beltway gossip about whether the president, the secretary of state, and the former president would serve the country or their own egos.

But the big questions are still unanswered. Up next, On Point: Bill Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang, and what it means for the US, North Korea, and an administration facing a world full of problems.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Tom Ashbrook is on vacation.


Guests:

Joining us from Seoul, South Korea, is Evan Ramstad, Korea correspondent for The Wall Street Journal covering the Clinton mission and the release of the American journalists.

Joining us from Busan, South Korea, is Brian Myers. He is a researcher of North Korean ideology and propaganda at Dongseo University, where he heads the International Studies department, and author of a forthcoming book on North Korean propaganda titled “The Cleanest Race.”An American citizen, he has lived in South Korea for eight years.

Joining us from New York is Michael Crowley, a senior editor at The New Republic. His most recent article, “The Decider,” looks at the Obama foreign policy team. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, GQ, and Slate.

And joining us from Aspen, Colo., is Mitchell Reiss, diplomat-in-residence at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He held several top diplomatic positions in the George W. Bush administration and has extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, including as chief negotiator for the United States in the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization in the Clinton administration. He was United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, with the diplomatic rank of Ambassador, until stepping down in 2007.



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Prepare to meet thy God


Amos 4

1Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

2The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

3And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD.

4Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:

5And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

6And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

7And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

8So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

9I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

10I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

11I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

12Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

13For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Russian Subs Seen Off U.S. East Coast


AUGUST 5, 2009

By PETER SPIEGEL

WASHINGTON -- Two Russian attack submarines were detected patrolling the waters off the East Coast of the U.S. in recent days, including one that came as close as 200 miles offshore, according to U.S. military officials.

Although Pentagon officials monitoring the subs' movements didn't consider them threatening, one senior military official said the patrols were unusual, given the weakened state of the Russian navy and the failure of Moscow to conduct such missions in years.

"Is it unusual? Yes, but we don't view it as provocative at all," the official said, adding that both subs remained in international waters at all times. The patrols were reported on the Web site of the New York Times.

During the Cold War, subs from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union regularly patrolled the North Atlantic in an elaborate game of naval brinkmanship intended to track rival fleets and position themselves strategically in case of war.

The senior military official said the two Russian vessels were nuclear-powered Akula class submarines, which were used during the Cold War to track North Atlantic Treaty Organization vessels and, in the event of war, attack enemy subs and ships with torpedoes and missiles. Only larger ballistic-missile subs are used for nuclear-weapons launches.

The Times reported that one of the subs had recently made port in Cuba, but the official said the U.S. has no confirmation of that move and that the second sub is believed instead to have remained close to Greenland.

The submarine patrols are the latest series of recent military operations by the Russians -- many of which Moscow dropped in the years following the Cold War -- which analysts believe are an attempt to reassert the stature of its military.

Last year, a Russian long-range strategic bomber buzzed the U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz and its accompanying flotilla as the Pearl Harbor-based strike group was patrolling the Pacific.

Two years ago, the Royal Air Force scrambled fighters to intercept Russian strategic "Bear" bombers that were flying patrols close to British airspace.

Write to Peter Spiegel at peter.spiegel@wsj.com



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Clinton begins Africa tour in Kenya




US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, is welcomed by Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009. Clinton has arrived in Kenya on the first leg of a seven-nation tour of Africa. In Africa, Clinton will address an African trade forum, meet top Kenyan officials and pledge continuing support to the beleaguered president of Somalia's shaky interim government. From Kenya, Clinton will travel to South Africa, Angola, Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)






By Matthew Lee
Associated Press Writer / August 4, 2009


NAIROBI, Kenya—U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is bringing a message of tough love to Kenya: you are a key American friend in east Africa, but you must rein in graft and follow through on political reform.

On the first leg of a seven-nation tour of Africa, Clinton will speak to Kenya's leadership about U.S. concerns for the country, the homeland of President Barack Obama's father, in the wake of corruption scandals and disputed 2007 elections that led to violence that left more than 1,000 dead.

"We remain concerned about the trajectory of the politics in Kenya over the past two years since the flawed elections of December 2007," Johnnie Carson, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, told reporters aboard Clinton's flight to Nairobi on Tuesday.

Clinton will make that point when she sees Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and former opposition leader now Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday, he said.

Chief among her worries is that a deal brokered by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan between the rivals has not been fully implemented.

"It is important for Kenya to move forward with the constitutional, judicial, police and land reform requirements that were part of the Kofi Annan agreement," Carson said. "Implementation of those agreements has been slow and in some ways frustrating."

"The secretary wants to encourage the full implementation of the agreements, especially those elements of the agreement that deal with impunity and holding those individuals responsible for the violence accountable under law," he said.

Just hours before Clinton arrived, the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi criticized Kenya for deciding to use discredited local courts to try the suspects behind the violence. It said the move would call into question whether there is any will to carry out reforms.

"The United States will stand firmly behind the Kenyan people as they insist on full implementation of the reform agenda," the embassy said in a statement, hinting at potential sanctions against those who oppose that agenda.

"We will take the necessary steps to hold accountable those who do not support the reform agenda or who support violence," it said.

Last week, the Kenyan government said it would try suspects accused of perpetrating the violence in local courts, which have a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases and have a reputation for corruption.

The government said it will accelerate reforms in the judiciary to ensure credible trials but the decision has already drawn heavy domestic criticism.

Several human rights bodies blamed businessmen and politicians in the current administration for orchestrating the violence, which was the worst since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963.

An independent commission that investigated the violence recommended last year that the government form an independent tribunal with Kenyan and foreign judges to try the suspects, arguing that Kenyan courts are not credible.

Also in Nairobi, Clinton will address an African trade forum and pledge continuing support to the beleaguered president of lawless Somalia's interim government, which is embroiled in a struggle with Islamist extremists with suspected links to al-Qaida.

From Kenya, Clinton on her first trip to Africa as secretary of state, will travel to South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.
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Five reported dead in US gym shooting


August 5, 2009 - 10:24AM


As many as five people died when a gunman opened fire at a gym during an all female Latin dance class in Pennsylvania, media reports said.


Local WTAE television reported that four people were killed - the gunman and three others - in the shooting at a Latin dance class at the LA Fitness Gym in Bridgeville, a town near Pittsburgh.
CNN reported that five were confirmed dead.


WTAE quoted a witness who said the killer walked into an all-female dance class and opened fire.


"He got off a lot of shots," the witness said. "People everywhere were screaming. It was horrible."



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Wrong-Way Highway Driver Who Killed 8 Had 10 Drinks, Was High


Toxicology Report in Taconic Crash Shows Marijuana, Double Legal Limit of Alcohol
By LEE FERRANAug. 4, 2009


A New York mom had at least 10 drinks and smoked a large amount of marijuana before driving five children the wrong way down a highway and crashing head on into an SUV, investigators said today.

(ABC News)Diane Schuler, 36, was killed in the July 26 accident on New York's Taconic State Parkway along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces who were riding in her van, as well as three men who were in the SUV in the July 26 wreck. Her 5-year-old son was the lone survivor of the crash.

Schuler had a blood alcohol content of .19, more than double the legal limit, and was also "impaired by marijuana," according to a statement released by state attorney Janet Difiore citing a toxicology report by the Westchester County medical examiner.

Investigators could not determine if Schuler had been drinking while she was driving, but alcohol was in her stomach at the time of the autopsy and a bottle of vodka was found at the crash scene, New York State Police Major William Carey said at a press conference.

It was not clear exactly how much or when Schuler smoked marijuana, the toxicology reported "high" levels of THC, the active ingredient in pot, Westchester director of toxicology Betsy Spratt said.

But she had drank a lot.


"There were approximately 10 drinks still in her," Spratt said that had yet to be metabolized.

The combination of alcohol and marijuana "intensified" the effects of each, Spratt said.

"With that level of alcohol we talk in ranges. She would've had difficulty with perception, judgment and memory. Around that level you get tunnel vision," Spratt said.

Carey said, "There's no indication there will be any criminal charges forthcoming."

Police initially said they had no indication Schuler was impaired while driving, Carey said.

"We did not have people that morning describe Diane Schuler as anything other than to say she was fine," Carey said.

The crash was ruled a homicide last week before the toxicology report was completed, Westchester medical examiner Dr. Millard Hyland told ABCNews.com.

"It was ruled a homicide in terms of people being killed because she was driving in the wrong direction," Hyland said, and did not take toxicology into account.

The full report was completed Monday, Hyland said.

Roseann Guzzo, daughter of Michael Bastardi and Guy Bastardi, both crash victims, told New York's The Journal News that while the report explains the once mysterious accident, it does not justify it.

"This wasn't an act of God. This was her choice. She made the wrong choice," Guzzo said. "This isn't an accident. This is murder."

The co-owner of the upstate N.Y. campground said she knew Diane Schuler well and saw her off on the day of the accident.

"If she had alcohol on her breath, I sure didn't smell it," said Scott. "The last thing I said to her was 'have a safe trip home' and she said, 'We will' and that was the end of it.


Woman Takes Deadly Turn

Schuler was driving home from a New York campground on the Taconic State Parkway, a route she knew well, when she somehow ended up driving the wrong way in the fast lane into oncoming traffic.

During the drive, Schuler called her brother to tell him she wasn't feeling well. He asked her to pull over immediately. Schuler did not pull over, but her brother was worried enough to call the police.

Two hours after the call to her brother, police believe Schuler turned onto the parkway, heading down an exit ramp with signs clearly stating that she was heading the wrong way.

She drove in the fast lane, straight into traffic. Oncoming cars swerved to miss her.


Surviving Driver: She Was 'In Control'

One of the drivers in her path, Richard Rowe, managed to avoid a crash with Schuler who he said seemed "in total control."

"I don't understand. She was in total control of the car," Rowe said. "Maybe initially she was confused, but she had lots of time to correct her mistake. If we had been 30 seconds later, we would have been hit by her."

Three men in the SUV from Yonkers, N.Y., could not avoid Schuler. All three were killed in the head-on collision.
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Democrats' break looking like a bad trip

By ALEX ISENSTADT & ABBY PHILLIP 8/4/09 4:26 AM EDT

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UjY3YDlwA&feature=player_embeddedhttp://
height="344">

Angry protesters shouted down Democrats at public events from Texas to Pennsylvania over the weekend, leaving the party only one real hope for getting its message out over recess: a backlash.

In Austin, Texas, Rep. Lloyd Doggett was drowned out by a group of noisy, sign-waving demonstrators who shouted, “Just say no” as he tried to talk about health care reform.

In an e-mail to POLITICO Monday, Doggett called the group a “mob, sent by the local Republican and Libertarian parties” that “came not just to be heard but to deny others the right to be heard.”

In Morrisville, Pa., Rep. Patrick Murphy was forced to scrap plans for a one-on-one meet-the-congressman session when people in the crowd started shouting. Murphy switched to a town hall format mid-event and even then had to ask the audience at times to “be respectful.”

And at a health care event in Philadelphia, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were repeatedly interrupted by booing and heckling. “We can shout at one another, or we can leave the stage,” Sebelius said at one point. “It’s up to you.”

For Democrats, that’s precisely the problem: Their ability to make their case on health care at public events during the August recess is mostly in the hands of the people who turn out for the events. And if those people want to be disruptive — especially en masse — there’s not much the Democrats can do about it.

“Town halls have become town hells,” said Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. “Special interests and opponents have figured out how easy it is to disrupt town halls and get their own message out. The days of the truly free-form town halls may be over.”

Democratic leaders aren’t quite ready to say that yet. Doug Thornell, a spokesman for Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), said House leaders are urging their members to continue holding public sessions, even if it means they’ll be shouted down and have it all replayed on YouTube.

“We have encouraged our members to use everything in their arsenal to communicate with their constituents,” said Thornell. “They know what works best in their districts. More than anything, they have to stay on the offense and not get distracted by stupid Republican gimmicks.”

The Republicans aren’t exactly apologetic.

“As some members of Speaker Pelosi’s party are already learning, it’s hard to heed her orders to ‘go on offense’ when you’re busy defending such unpopular policies,” said Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-6QfxqKnk&feature=player_embeddedhttp://
height="344">




Lindsay said the NRCC would begin circulating a regular e-mail to reporters highlighting the protests at Democrats’ town halls. The title: “Recess Roastings — Washington Democrats Feel the Heat at Home.”

Democrats are trying to push back, casting the town hall disrupters as right-wing extremists affiliated with anti-tax “tea parties.”

“The last place Republicans ought to be moving their party is even more to the fringe of the political spectrum,” said Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Added a senior Democratic strategist: “It may be out of necessity, but for Republicans, relying on the fringe elements of the party to be the face of opposition on health care is a dangerous game. The birthers and the tea party folks aren’t controllable, come off as angry and out of control and couldn’t care less about the issue at hand.”

But communications experts say it would be a mistake to demonize the protesters.

“The more intelligent alternative is to take the extensive network the Obama campaign developed and send all of those people to town halls,” said University of Pennsylvania political scientist Kathleen Hall Jamieson. “If this comes down to vocal individuals, the Obama campaign ought to be able to always outnumber their opponent. And if they’re not, then that’s a problem.”

Democrats aren’t the only ones taking town hall heat. Republican Rep. Mike Castle was smacked down by the crowd at a town hall in Delaware last month when he wouldn’t agree with an angry inquisitor who insisted that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

McKinnon suggested that lawmakers handle noisy crowds by asking “the rabble to provide a spokesperson, and give them the microphone for one question and comment.”

“Just give them a platform to have their say and let the air out of the balloon,” he advised. “If they continue to harass, then they really look like partisan hacks.”

One thing on which everyone agrees: The protests are likely to continue.

The insurance lobby has urged the public to turn out for town halls, as have members of the tea party movement and the group Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, which is providing a list of upcoming public events on its website — together with videos of events that have already been disrupted.

“I think that it’s going to happen at a lot of the town halls,” said Rick Scott, chairman of Conservatives for Patients’ Rights. “What you’re seeing is a change.”

Specter, who was booed in Philadelphia over the weekend, told The Associated Press that it’s “highly likely” other senators will soon meet the same fate.


Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25765.html

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North Korea pardons US reporters

State media said Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-il had wide-ranging talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8183437.stm

North Korea pardons US reporters

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has issued a special pardon to two detained US journalists, the country's state news agency reports.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee had been found guilty of entering illegally in March.

The news comes hours after former US President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to Pyongyang on what was described as a private mission.

Mr Clinton is the highest-profile American to visit since ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000.

Mr Clinton had landed in Pyongyang in an unmarked plane and was greeted at the airport by North Korean officials.

KCNA said that Mr Clinton met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, although the White House denied its report that Mr Clinton had conveyed a message from US President Barack Obama.


US JOURNALISTS PARDONED
17 March: Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling seized by North Korean border guards while reporting for California-based Current TV
8 June: Sentenced to 12 years in jail for "hostile acts" and illegal entry into North Korea
16 June: North Korea says journalists have "admitted and accepted" their guilt
10 July: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeals for an amnesty for the two
4 August: Former US President Bill Clinton arrives in Pyongyang and North Korea later announces the journalists will be pardoned

Will visit change Pyongyang?

Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, had been found guilty of entering North Korea illegally across the Chinese border in March and were sentenced to 12 years' hard labour.

They were arrested by North Korean guards while filming a video about refugees for California-based internet broadcaster Current TV.

The White House has pressed for their release, and Mr Clinton's wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asked last month that they be granted amnesty.

Analysts say that Kim Jong-il is eager to improve relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.

President Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke a year ago and also has chronic diabetes and heart disease. Analysts say his third son is being lined up to succeed him.

Nuclear tension

Mr Clinton's visit comes at a time of heightened tension between Washington and Pyongyang on North Korea's nuclear programme.

North Korea dropped out of six-party talks after the UN censured along-range missile test in April. The parties include Russia, China, Japan, the US and both Koreas.

An underground nuclear test and further missile tests followed, provoking new UN Security Council sanctions.


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8184583.stm

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Geithner to regulators: 'Stop your (expletive) turf wars'

Photo: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images


7:17 PM, August 3, 2009


Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner launched an "expletive-laced" tirade against top U.S. financial regulators in a meeting on Friday, demanding that they halt their turf battles over the administration’s proposed regulatory overhaul, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Frustration apparently has been building in the White House as individual regulators have publicly voiced objections to parts of the plan, including giving the Federal Reserve more oversight of the financial system and creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to police lending products.

The regulators’ pushback could pose a threat to any overhaul by giving House and Senate leaders ammunition to challenge the plan.

From the Journal’s website:

Mr. Geithner told the regulators Friday that "enough is enough," said one person familiar with the meeting. Mr. Geithner said regulators had been given a chance to air their concerns, but that it was time to stop, this person said.

Among those gathered in the Treasury conference room were Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair.

Other attendees were: Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and Office of Thrift Supervision Acting Director John Bowman.

Friday's roughly hourlong meeting was described as unusual, not only because of Mr. Geithner's repeated use of obscenities, but because of the aggressive posture he took with officials from federal agencies generally considered independent of the White House. Mr. Geithner reminded attendees that the administration and Congress set policy, not the regulatory agencies.
Neal Wolin, Treasury's deputy secretary, told the Journal that Geithner wanted to make sure that turf battles didn’t get in the way of fixing a system that badly needed an overhaul.
Wolin wouldn’t comment on Geithner's tone or language, the Journal said.

-- Tom Petruno


Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/08/treasury-secretary-timothy-geithner-launched-an-expletive-laced-tirade-against-top-us-financial-regulators-in-a-meeting-o.html

Russia tightens controls on Chinese border over plague outbreak


18:1304/08/2009


CHITA, August 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has tightened security on part of the border with China due to an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the Qinghai province.

The town of Ziketan in northwest Qinghai was quarantined after the outbreak was registered on July 30. Twelve people have been infected, of whom three have died.

A spokesperson for the customs service in the Transbaikal area, to the east of Siberia's Lake Baikal, told RIA Novosti that no signs of infection have so far been detected near the border.

Russia's chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko advised Russians on Tuesday to avoid travelling to China's "problem regions."

The head of the local department of national consumer rights regulator Ropotrebnadzor told RIA Novosti that Transbaikal has historically been a plague hot spot, due to its proximity with China and Mongolia.

"A lot depends on the number of wild rodents, who are the main carriers of the fleas that spread the plague. We have an anti-plague station operating in the region, which is studying these processes," Vladimir Pintusov said.

According to the World Health Organization, pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs and can be transmitted from person to person or from animals to people, can be fatal within 24 hours of infection.
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People flee Chinese town hit by plague


By HENRY SANDERSON (AP) – 1 hour ago

BEIJING — Residents of a remote farming town in western China said Tuesday people were seeking to flee in defiance a lockdown by authorities to prevent the spread of highly infectious pneumonic plague which has claimed three lives in the area.

Police have set up checkpoints around Ziketan in Qinghai province, a town of 10,000 people, which has been put under quarantine after at least a dozen people caught the lung infection which can kill within 24 hours if untreated.

Some people tried to leave the quarantined area Monday evening, mostly by foot, after the third death was reported, two residents reached by The Associated Press said. Most of the town's residents are Tibetan herders of yaks, sheep and pigs.

"A lot of people ran off last night when they heard that another person died of this plague. They are mostly from other provinces," said a food seller surnamed Han who runs a stall at the Crystal Alley Market. "They headed back home with food, water and their donkeys."

Medical workers in Ziketan were disinfecting and killing rodents and insects that can be carriers for the bacteria that causes the plague, according to a notice on the provincial health department Web site.

A Tibetan woman named Xiumaocuo, a migrant construction worker from another village in Qinghai, said there were very few people on the streets Tuesday.

"I've heard the migrant workers who build projects went home last night," she said by telephone. "My boss told me that more than 50 of the 100 construction workers on our project left homes already."

It was unclear if the people who headed out of the town made it past the police checkpoints, which residents say have been set up in 17-mile (28-kilometer) radius around Ziketan, which lies more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) west of Beijing.

Officials at the local and provincial level were unavailable to comment.

Chinese authorities have been in contact with the World Health Organization about their steps to contain the outbreak of plague, a disease that circulates mainly among small animals like rats and mice but can also infect humans.

Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria that causes bubonic plague — the Black Death that killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe in the Middle Ages. Pneumonic plague is the least common and most deadly form of the disease. It can be directly spread between humans since the bacteria is airborne and can easily be inhaled by those in close contact with infected patients. But if treated early with antibiotics, it is curable.

The outbreak in Ziketan was first detected Thursday, although it isn't clear when the first victim died.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the latest victim was a 64-year-old man named Danzhi — a neighbor of the first two fatalities, described in reports as a 32-year-old herdsman and a 37-year-old man.

The herdsman fell sick after burying his dog, which had died suddenly, according to a report by the official China National Radio, citing a hospital official. He died four days after the dog's burial and the relatives who handled his funeral were showing symptoms within days, the report said.

Those relatives were among a further nine people who are infected and in a hospital, according to the local health bureau. One is in extremely serious condition and one other has developed symptoms of coughing and chest pain, but the rest are in stable condition, Xinhua and the health department said.

China has had cases of plague before. WHO said in a 2006 report that most cases in China's northwest occur when hunters are contaminated while skinning infected animals.

In 2004, eight villagers in Qinghai province died of plague, most infected after killing or eating wild marmots, creatures related to gophers and prairie dogs.

Worldwide, thousands of plague cases are reported each year, mostly in Africa. Between 1998 and 2008, nearly 24,000 cases were reported, including about 2,000 deaths, in Africa, Asia, the Americas and eastern Europe.


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Congressman: Smart Grid Can be Wiped Out by Electromagnetic Weapons


Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:06am EDT


By Preston Gralla - Preston Gralla


There's been plenty of evidence recently that the Smart Grid could become a serious security risk for IT and households. Now comes something potentially just as troubling: A U.S. Congressman warns that the grid can be taken down by an electromagnetic weapon.

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Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Rep.-Md.) issued that warning recently. He's not your typical "the-sky-is-falling" Congressman --- he's a former research scientist and engineer and has previously has worked on projects for NASA and the military. Bartlett issued his warning yesterday at a House Science subcommittee hearing about how to roll out the Smart Grid.

At the hearing, he warned that a weapon that fired an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could wipe out significant sections of the Smart Grid. According to a Science News account of the hearings:
EMP is a powerful and potentially devastating form of electromagnetic "fallout." It's usually associated with nuclear weapons, although it can be triggered by any major explosive bursts. Unlike radioactive fallout, this rain won't directly harm living things. It will just catastrophically fry all electronics and modern electrical systems by inducing staggeringly large and rapid current or voltage surges.

The magazine goes on to report that Bartlett warns small nations could use the weapon against the Smart Grid, when it is developed:
All one needs to wreak some serious EMP damage, he charges, is a sea-worthy steamer, $100,000 to buy a scud-missile launcher, and a crude nuclear weapon. Then fling the device high into the air and detonate its warhead.

Such a system might not paralyze the entire United States, he concedes. "But you could shut down all of New England. And if you missed by 100 miles, it's as good as a bulls eye."
At the hearing, various people testified about how the grid might be hardened against attack, by protecting key components of it. Bartlett, though, isn't convinced that we're doing enough and wants EMP protection built directly into it. For more details, see the Science News account.




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Debts paid, Hillary Clinton builds $3+ million campaign fund for ...?


With all of the immense numbers coming out of Washington these days, former senator, ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign debt is chump change. Make that, "was."
Here's the news: There is no more Hillary Clinton campaign debt.

In fact, there's a campaign fund surplus.

And, in fact, while the current secretary of State officially left politics on being sworn into the Obama administration's top diplomatic post and says future political office "is not anything that is at all on my radar screen," she's still got eight campaign workers on staff. She's also said, "I'm out of politics."

Hmmm. Note the present tense in that statement.

Of course, she's out of politics now. Also of course, who knows what the situation will be in 2012? Who'd have guessed three years ago she'd be showing her management skills by running the huge Department of State? For a president named Barack Obama?

Or what about 2016? She'd be 69 then. Her good friend, John McCain, wasn't too old to run at 72. Too old to win, but not too old to run.

As the N.Y. Daily News reports, Clinton's $22 million in campaign debts (a good chunk of it owed to herself), has somehow now turned into some $3+ million in cash on hand and still growing, some in her old Senate fund and some in her defunct presidential campaign warchest.
Obama appealed to his supporters to help her pay off the millions she spent unsuccessfully running him down in the spring of 2008 before giving up her $250 million effort that June. Clinton appealed for money. Also hubby Bill appealed. Chelsea. All kinds of folks and contests. It worked.

fact, it's still working; her campaign site is still accepting donations, presumably from those Democratic voters who helped make 18 million cracks in the ultimate glass ceiling. She didn't get to pay herself back. But Clinton doesn't owe fired consultant Mark Penn any more millions.
The old campaign, which spent $100,000 on staff last quarter, says it's winding down and will soon drop from eight staffers down to five. Clinton's former New York senatorial colleague, Chuck Schumer, has to run a campaign next year. He's only got three fulltimers.
One other thing: There's probably no connection. So many things have changed. But as The Ticket reported here 54 weeks ago, business friends of Hillary Rodham Clinton have purchased the web domain name HRC2012.

Hmmm.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images (Clinton and Obama show unity in Unity, N.H., June 2008).
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