The President’s Day

President Barack Obama delivers remarks during a meeting of The President’s Export Council in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. Composed of Obama administration officials, elected leaders and executives from the private sector, the council is an advisory committee on international trade

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President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with the President’s Export Council. President Obama expressed caution on Thursday about the possibility of the United States adding more sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Ukraine because it could cause divide Washington and Europe. Also pictured are Boeing President and Chief Executive Jim McNerney and Xerox Chairman and Chief Executive Ursula Burns

President Barack Obama meets with the President’s Export Council. The Export Council advises the president on policies and programs that affect trade performance and promote export expansion. Back row, from left are Jeff Zients, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney

The President’s Export Council Chair and Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney listens to President Barack Obama

This and That (short-ish version)

Text of remarks here

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It was pretty flippin’ delicious watching the Twitter meltdown after this:

Jeffrey Toobin: Edward Snowden Is No Hero

Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, including my colleague John Cassidy, are hailing him as a hero and a whistle-blower. He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.

…. he describes himself as appalled by the government he served … what, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? ….

…. he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done.

More here

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Text of remarks here

@PeteSouza: Photo of Pres Obama w Alan Krueger, chair of CEA, trailed by just-nominated chair Jason Furman and his family

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@VP: VP ceremonially swears in @ErnestMoniz as Sec. of @ENERGY in the Roosevelt Room of the @whitehouse

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Newsie stuff in the morning – chat away.

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PS Happy birthday Sasha …..

nevada to new mexico

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…. greeted by Clark County Commission, Nev. Chair Susan Brager

President Obama walks across the tarmac to greet well-wishers upon arrival at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas

A Secret Service agent is seen at Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility before a speech by President Obama

…. with Jeffrey Martin, CEO, Sempra U.S. Gas & Power

…. speaking at Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility in Boulder City, Nevada

…. greeting audience members after speaking at the Copper Mountain Solar Project

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…. arriving with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Roswell International Airport

…. greeted by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez

…. on his way to deliver remarks on energy independence at Maljamar Cooperative Association Unit in New Mexico

afternoon raleigh

President Obama is greeted by North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue after arriving at Raleigh Durham International Airport

…. greeted by Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.

…greeting wellwishers upon arrival on Air Force One at Raleigh-Durham

President Obama tours Cree, Inc, a manufacturer of energy efficient LED lighting, in Durham, North Carolina

President Obama sits next to Chairman of the council and CEO of General Electric Jeffrey Immelt as he meets with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness after touring a North Carolina energy efficient LED light manufacturing facility

“expects”??

President Barack Obama talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, May 18, 2009

Jeffrey Goldberg (The Atlantic): …I was taken aback when I read a statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday that he “expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, which were overwhelmingly supported by both House of Congress.”

So Netanyahu “expects” to hear this from the President of the United States? And if President Obama doesn’t walk back the speech, what will Netanyahu do? Will he cut off Israeli military aid to the U.S.? Will he cease to fight for the U.S. in the United Nations, and in the many  international forums that treat Israel as a pariah?

I don’t like this word, “expect”. Even if there weren’t an imbalance between these two countries – Israel depends on the U.S. for its survival, while America, I imagine, would continue to exist even if Israel ceased to exist – I would find myself feeling resentful about the way Netanyahu speaks about our President.

….he threw something of a hissy fit. It was not appropriate, and more to the point, it was not tactically wise … Prime Minister Netanyahu needs the support of President Obama in order to confront the greatest danger Israel has ever faced: the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet he seems to go out of his way to alienate the President. Why does he do this? It’s a mystery to me.

Full post here

Thank you LoriahR

Also from Jeffrey Goldberg:….Republicans are misreading Obama’s speech for short-term political gain. But they’re doing the cause they ostensibly support – Israel – a disservice in the process. Because President Obama’s speech was enthusiastically pro-Israel …

Here’s Tim Pawlenty on the speech, misreading a crucial passage: “President Obama’s insistence on a return to the 1967 borders is a mistaken and very dangerous demand….”

President Obama didn’t “insist” that Israel return to its 1967 borders. He said the 1967 borders should form the basis of negotiations, and that Israel and Palestine should swap land, land swaps that would bring settlement blocs and East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhoods into Israel proper.

But Pawlenty is a master of subtlety when compared to Mitt Romney, who said: “President Obama has thrown Israel under the bus……”

Obama has thrown Israel under a bus? Top officials of the Israeli defense ministry have been telling me, and other reporters, for a couple of years now that military cooperation between their country and America has never been better. Some bus. There are a lot of countries out there that would like to be thrown under similar buses.

Full post here

newsweek: right wing comic

I laughed today when I read a few articles on Harvard professor Niall Ferguson’s cover story in Newsweek attacking President Obama for his Middle East policy and his handling of the situation in Egypt (a “debacle”!). This, of course, was a bit of a contrast to the verdicts of Professor Marc Lynch (here), Fareed Zakaria (here) and Peter Beinart (here), amongst others.

Hardly anywhere did the people commenting on the piece give any background on Ferguson – which, when you have a look at it, is just a little bit relevant: to put it, em, politely, he’s a loathsome, stomach-churning, narcissistic piece of right wing manure who wouldn’t give credit to President Obama even if he single-handedly saved planet earth from destruction. And Newsweek have hired this creature as a columnist and made his rant their cover story?! Wow!

So, a little background on the guy: click here for Ferguson’s 2008 speech to the right wing Hoover Institution – entitled ‘Why America Needs McCain’ – during which he repeated all the usual right wing abuse of President Obama, eg that he’s a cult leader, bla bla bla. Snore.

This is the guy who thought he was being highly witty when he wrote: “President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat … Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky.” (He wasn’t being racist, he reassured us – after all, we were told, he’d left his wife of 16 years for a black woman).

This is the guy who said the US should “occupy Iraq for 40 years“. Seriously. This is the guy who is on the board of the right-wing British think-tank the Centre for Policy Studies. This is the guy whose political hero was Margaret Thatcher – he “adored” her. (Bucket, please).

This is the guy who “told the world to wise up and start being grateful for everything that the British Empire had done for it”. Honest, I didn’t make that up. This is the guy who was a columnist for the right wing British rag the Daily Mail (but wasn’t brave enough to use his real name when he spouted his right wing bile).

This is the guy who argued that “the First World War had not been worth Britain fighting – Germany should have been allowed a mainland European empire”. Yep, that would have worked well for Europe’s Jews, Niall.

I’m not always on Paul Krugman’s ‘side’, but I was this time: “Ferguson is a poseur who…. relies on snide comments and surface cleverness to convey the impression of wisdom. It’s all style, no comprehension of substance.”

I could go on and on ….. but I won’t. It just would be kind of nice if we were told about the ideological background and prejudices of opinion piece writers when their work is being commented upon, or when they are being introduced as authorities on a subject on TV. Ferguson’s agenda means he will always attack President Obama, regardless. And Newsweek gave that agenda pride of place on their cover? Two words: ‘good’ and ‘grief’.

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Salon (2010): “Ferguson is a belligerent nut. The last time American policymakers listened to him, the United States invaded Iraq….”.

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Some of the comments posted under Ferguson’s article on The Daily Beast (which, of course, has merged with Newsweek):

“Look at this piece for what it really is…another reich wing talking head trying to push his way through the crowd by throwing a pie at President Obama.”

“Newsweek needs to find some Brits who have views a little more advanced than George III.”

“He seems determined to become another extremist provocateur a la Coulter. Say outrageous things to sell books and get face time on cable. Too bad that most people who even know who he is are familiar with his claptrap and too smart to fall for his self-promotional rhetoric … The bigger disappointment is that Newsweek would put such a loaded article as its cover. Further into irrelevance it goes.”

“Professor Ferguson’s transformation from lettered, Harvard academic to conservative political hack is complete. He is the thinking man’s Glenn Beck … as his debates with Professor Krugman and his meetings with the Republican leadership pre-midterm elections have demonstrated, he has cast his lot in with the Tea Partiers and their politicians…. Don’t be fooled. Ferguson is just Glenn Beck in an academic’s cap and gown.”

“Articles like this make me so happy my Newsweek subscription is ending.”

Read Jeffrey Goldberg’s response in The Atlantic here

light reading

White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson, left, reads a book on lithium-ion batteries, while riding in the support vehicle from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, en route to the White House, April 2, 2010. Jeffrey Kueter, a White House physician, is seated at right.

tight squeeze

Personal Aide Reggie Love and White House doctor Jeffrey Kuhlman ride in a spare limousine from Lanham, Md. to the White House, Feb. 16, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)