On the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, President Obama said that although the tragedy transformed the U.S. Secret Service, which protects him and his family today, he doesn’t spend much time worrying about his personal safety.
“It’s not something I think about,” Obama told ABC News‘ Barbara Walters in an interview today. “Mainly because we have a Secret Service that does an outstanding job every single day.”
“And, obviously, tragedy reshaped the Secret Service in many ways, but they do an outstanding job and it’s thankfully not something I spend a lot of time worrying about,” he added.
President Obama’s full interview with Barbara Walters will air on “20/20” Friday, Nov. 29.
Obama also reflected on JFK’s untimely death, which came nearly three years into his presidency, and its lasting impact on the country.
“And it’s been an incredible legacy but JFK in particular, I think, captured the idealism, the ability to imagine and remake America to meets its ideals, in a way we haven’t seen before or since,” Obama said.
“And I don’t know of anyone who has had that same impact on a generation and inspired so many people as JFK has,” he added
President Obama has paid tribute to President Kennedy at the Medal of Freedom ceremony today as he presented awards to former President Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, country singer Loretta Lynn and newspaper editor Ben Bradlee.
In his opening remarks, Obama highlighted the slain President’s sister-in-law Ethel Kennedy, calling her ‘one of my favorite people’ in a room full of dignitaries. He went on to also give President Kennedy’s grandson Jack a shout out by praising his basketball skills.
Aside from the fact that the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination comes this Friday, the Democrat was mentioned because he was the one to establish the Medal of Freedom initiative which is the highest civilian honor in the country.
His death on November 22, 1963 came two weeks before the first group of winners were due to receive their medals.
President Bill Clinton is far from the first former Commander in Chief to receive the award- in fact all but four Republicans: Presidents Nixon, Ford and both Bushes- have been granted the award by their predecessors.
Here is another gem from our Joker, Ted Cruz. In an interview published on Saturday, Cruz suggested that President Obama should be impeached because he is not enforcing the laws.
Imagine that! Ted Cruz is suggesting impeachment, because he thinks the president is not enforcing the laws of the United States.
Kinda makes me think of a certain group of people called Republicans who refused to enforce a law certain law called The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. A law that was approved by all three branches ogf government and by the People of the United States when they reelected the president in 2012.
Ted Cruz is one of the Republican senators who refuses to enforce this law, and have led the march against the law with over 45 attempts at repeal. But in his hypocritical interview, Cruz had the nerves to call the president “lawless.” Imagine that!
“One of the most troubling aspects of the Obama administration is, aside from their radical policies, the way they’ve implemented it has sadly been lawless. Over and over again, this president has said, ‘I don’t care what the law is, I’m going to refuse to enforce it.’”
According to Cruz, the president is committing an impeachable crime by granting work permits to young immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
“We have never seen a president behave like President Obama, who believes he can just pick and choose: He’ll enforce this law, not enforce another law.”
And on the question of impeachment? Cruz answered;
“You know, any impeachment would have to be tried in the United States Senate. And so, my responsibility would be to render judgment. I would not want to urge the House to do anything other than exercise its best judgement. And then I would endeavor to do the same.”
Thus senator lives in a glass house, but he is constantly throwing stones.
Don’t get me wrong. What’s happened over the past five weeks has been a colossal, epic failure on President Obama’s part. All he needed to say about the health care law was that you could keep your insurance if it met minimum standards, and then he needed to repeat those standards. He also needed to repeat the benefits of the law, from covering preexisting conditions to free physicals, checkups and flu shots. But Obama thought that passage of the law was enough and that the government didn’t need to publicize what was on public record. Big mistake. Now he’s gotten caught in a web that the right wing has been spinning since 2010. It’s ugly. It’s sobering. It’s a mess. And it hurts.
And now for the good news. Obama’s opponents are still the same gang that shut down the government, opposes marriage equality, wants to voucherize Medicare and cut $40 billion from the food stamp program, denies global warming, thinks transvaginal ultrasounds are effective public policy, supports testing public school students at the expense of a real curriculum, opposes immigration reform and continues to want to deport large numbers of Hispanics.
In the 1990s, my father used to say that Newt Gingrich was the best thing that ever happened to Bill Clinton. The Tea Party and John Boehner are the best things to happen to Barack Obama. His approval ratings are down now, but they’ll rebound because the right wing hasn’t changed.
Their main vulnerability is their belief that the health care law has imperiled every part of Obama’s agenda. What they forget is that prior to the shutdown, the GOP’s ideas were extreme and unpopular. My sense is that they’ll get even more extreme because they see Obama at a critical point in his presidency. Healthcare.gov will not make the Republicans look any better on women, Hispanics, social programs and, yes, health care.
The health care mess will also leave the front pages soon because the website will be fixed and more people will successfully sign up for care. Also, fiscal negotiations are just around the corner and the right has left itself vulnerable because they’ve pretty much promised not to shut the government down again and they’d be even crazier than I think they are to not raise the debt ceiling. Plus, the press will get tired of this story and move on to other things.
In the end, though, the real advantage is that we’re talking about trying to insure people against catastrophic expenses by providing them with health insurance. Never forget that.
The picture below correctly identifies the nonsense the Republican Party and their supporters are pushing these days.
You know, the I love my insurance even though it boils down to be me paying my insurance company hundreds of dollars every month for services I think I should get, but will not get if or when I’m sick, and may even get dropped by my insurance carrier if I ever think of filing a claim plan… so please let me keep it!
The artist below shows one of these dumb Americans – he must be a Republican – obviously standing in a thunderstorm with what amounts to a piece of stick over his head, trying to protect himself and his family from the rain.
And here comes the president, Barack Obama, with a Knirps Big Duomatic Automatic Umbrella, Solid Black, retails for a whole lot of money, but the dumb American can get it for just about what he is paying for that piece of stick he’s holding above his head… in the thunderstorm. What would he do?
What do you do? You and your family are soaking wet. You get the opportunity to shelter yourself from the storm… what do you do?
Do you accept the Knirps Big Duomatic Automatic Umbrella Solid Black offer that is sure to protect you and your family? Or do you stay soaked to the bones, catch a nasty case of pneumonia and die from your dumb ignorance in thinking that a piece of stick would save you from getting wet in this thunderstorm?
What do you do?
The smart ones, we’ll call them Democrats, would gladly accept the Knirps Big Duomatic Automatic Umbrella Solid Black, and his/her family would be able to go see their doctor, get regular preventative checkups, and live a long and healthy life, mainly because they wouldn’t have to go bankrupt to pay medical bills.
The dumb ones, we’ll call them Republicans, would bitch, moan and complain that they want to keep their stick and the president is trying to give them a better umbrella. The dumb ones would also gladly go bankrupt when they find out that pneumonia or even the common cold is not covered by their loving stick, oops, I mean their loving garbage insurance policy.
Hey, at least they would be buried as a Republican, and they would be able to tell all their friends that they stood up to that black dude in the White House who was doing everything he possibly could, to save them from that thunderstorm.
But wait! You can tell your friends anything, when you’re dead!
Just another attempt by the right-wing nut jobs in the Republican party, to smear the man that was democratically elected to office. In this example, there is no concern for the President’s policies… no. In this example, Republicans are only concerned about bringing down the man… Barack Obama!
A woman claiming to know President Obama or Barry as he was called back in school when he was 16, claims that the President was a “gay, cocaine using hustler” back in school. This claim by the woman who calls herself Mia Marie Pope, is now being searched for near and far. Apparently, she has important information they need to make policies that will help the American people.
And no, I’m not talking about Dick Cheney. The revelation came courtesy a new book calked Double Down, with exerts published by Politico.
The book details behind the scenes comments and statements made by those closest to the president’s re election campaign 2012. For example, unnamed sources in the book claim that President Obama, when asked about a Golf outing with former President Bill Clinton, replied “I like him… in doses.”
Clinton, on the other hand, thought Obama was one of the luckiest people in the world, and expressed this as only Bill Clinton can.
Romney’s ineptness staggered Clinton. After the release of the 47 percent video, he remarked to a friend that, while Mitt was a decent man, he was in the wrong line of work. (‘He really shouldn’t be speaking to people in public.’) As for Obama, Clinton trotted out for his pals the same line again and again: ‘He’s luckier than a dog with two dicks.’”
“He’s luckier than a dog with two dicks.”
If that doesn’t become a t-shirt slogan by tomorrow, I will be very disappointed in the internet.
Let it be Known that THIS President is Fed Up! He’s just about reached his Boiling point and so has America.
In his press conference on Tuesday, President Obama reiterated his position of Not negotiating with the Republican hostage takers unless they “do their jobs” and put an end to the Government Shutdown and their threats of not raising the Debt Ceiling.
President Obama did not mince words in his opening statement calling on Republican Speaker John Boehner to take the bill to a vote, something he had been asking Boehner to do since the shutdown began. The President spoke on Tuesday and said he was Willing to negotiate and have open discussions with Boehner and any other Republican on any issues, even the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) but not under extortion threats and not until they ended the shutdown.
The President also spoke on the looming Debt Ceiling crisis that is set to take us over the cliff on October 17th. During his opening comments, Mr Obama read statements by bankers, investors, the Treasury Dept., economists and even billionaire Warren Buffet, a staunch supporter of the President.
In those statements, the president described the potential outcome of defaulting on the nation’s debt. The president used words like insane, catastrophic, irresponsible and Buffet comparing the Default to the likes of an Atomic Bomb going off in America’s financial district.
With these highly qualified and financially successful individuals expressing such dire outcomes to this unfathomable inaction of not raising the Debt Ceiling, the Republicans have shown NO indication of giving in to the desires of the President, the Democratic and Independent members in Congress or the hundreds of thousands of Americans already suffering from the Government Shutdown. To be clear, some Reublicans have gone on record to say the Debt Ceiling is not a big deal.
Rep. John Fleming, (R) of Louisiana said of the economist predictions of castrophic events if the Debt Ceiling isn’t raised, “Many times they’re wrong. So I don’t think we should be running government based on economists’ predictions.” Rep. Richard Burr, (R) of NC made similar comments about not taking the Debt Ceiling seriously. Tom Coburn, (R) of Oklahoma was made an even worse assessment of the Debt Ceiling crisis by saying on an CNN interview that there is NO DEBT CEILING.
So, with the Republicans and Tea Party cheering on these self inflicted crises one after another, why would they – the same people who champion themselves as being Patriotic, Responsible and “Country loving” Americans – allow this Country to fall into Default? Why did they shutdown the Government and place thousands in financial dismay and/or ruin?
The shutdown has not only caused furloughs to hundreds of thousands, but is also affecting WIC programs and children that depend on that program for food and other necessities. It has affected the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in being able to pursue the aggressive viruses and diseases. And now, it is affecting loved ones who have had service men and women killed in the line of duty.
The Republican Party and Tea Party members are demanding the President negotiate with them or they will not end the shutdown AND will allow this country to Default on its obligations. Obama said yesterday that America has never defaulted in the last 225-years so why are the Republicans so Willing to let it occur now?
It’s not about Negotiations. It’s about Destroying a President.
The President said the Democrats have attempted to negotiate with Republicans 19-times only to have them squash talks with more of their wants but not giving anything in return.
No, the Republicans and Tea Party members are so willing to let this Country and the Amerian people suffer to destroy President Obama. Their plan is to tarnish, defame, discredit, nullify and destroy Obama’s legacy.
They are trying to kill this country and all of Obama’s successes will become null and void in their eyes and in their hopes, the Americans as well.
It’s a careless, irresponsible and harmful gamble by the Republicans and Tea Party members, but they seem oblivious or just plain ignorant to what may be their political demise.
Polls show that Americans are placing the government shutdown blame on Replublicans at 39% in the latest Pew Poll while 30% blamed Obama. But Republicans aren’t listening to Polls nor Americans because the end game is shutting down a President. And to think, the shutdown began with Obamacare but has now shifted to the Debt Ceiling.
What the outcome will bring is unclear but to the rest of the World, America’s Bright and Shiny Star is becoming a dull rock on a dusty hill.
We can’t, as President Obama said Tuesday, continue to manufacturer these crises every 3-months. Government wasn’t meant to operate in this fashion. But we have a group of people in Congress that have yet to accept This President as a Legitimate Leader of the Free World.
In reading some Twitter feeds on yesterday, one stuck out the most. It said, “The Black race has been more willing to Overcome and Work with the white race even after the Atrocities performed against them vs The White race Accepting a Black Man as President and working With Him.” Poignant indeed.
While No One Wants to Believe this is Racially motivated by the Republicans and Tea Party members, it’s been amazing to see how white America has reacted on Twitter and other social media outlets. If our white brothers and sisters are crying racism against the President, it’s clearly racism.
So what do we do about it? We Vote! Outvote the Extremists that elect these Extreme Members of Congress. We Expose them for who and what they are and Vote Them Out!
They say it’s time to take back Their country? Well I say It’s Time We Expel, vote out extremism and allow this Country To Move Forward! Now IS THE TIME! Vote America! If you want TRUE CHANGE, VOTE Out THE EXTREME!
I know that this is not the popular choice, given our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the record, I supported strikes in Afghanistan as necessary to weaken terrorists, and certainly opposed the Iraq War as based on faulty intelligence and a desire by President Bush to avenge Saddam’s attempt to assassinate his father.
Syria, however, is different. Here we have a dictator who, as far as we know (key), has unleashed chemical weapons on his people. This is unacceptable, and to stand by and do nothing is also unacceptable. History has taught us that if you give rulers an inch they will take many kilometers. So it is with Assad. If we do nothing it will strengthen the hands of Iran and Russia, and will embolden other rulers who are threatened by insurgencies to use chemical and biological weapons should they want to.
I understand both the reticence and frothy opposition: It’s expensive at a time when we should be spending money on our problems here at home. We should not be involved in nation building or getting involved in other countries’ civil wars. Syria is not a threat to the United States. Pinpoint strikes will do nothing to ally Assad from doing more. Missile strikes would only be the beginning, with boots on the ground to follow. The United States should not have to solve all of the world’s problems. Once you use the military, you can’t control the consequences.
There are remedies to this. Congress can pass a resolution that limits the president to using missiles only and does not authorize any combat troops. This can be a one-time event. We can get the UN to support those things too. As for the more philosophical objections, if we don’t know what the effects of a missile strike will be, do we really know what the effects of not calling out Assad on chemical weapons will be? Do we really know that strikes will have little effect? And by the way, Syria is potentially a threat to the United States because a victory by Assad strengthens the extremists who have struck us before. Let’s try to think long-term for a change. Assad uses chemical weapons today. Do terrorists use them tomorrow?
Contrast this with what we do know if we don’t strike. Assad will use chemical weapons again, perhaps on Israel, as will other dictators. The United States will look weak and ineffectual, as will the UN and the president. Those consequences are not acceptable.
The Allies ignored the Armenian genocide, decided to do little but stand in their legislative chambers in response to the Holocaust, allowed Cambodia to degenerate into chaos and killing, virtually ignored Rwanda, and only got itself unstuck in the Balkans out of shame. Now we are confronted by another catastrophe, and it is within our power to at least do something rather than shrug our shoulders.
We need to strike Syria.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted American President Barack Obama today as Russia plays host to the G 20 Summit. Unlike past impressions of what seemed to be a rocky relationship between the two leaders, this meeting brought smiles, handshakes and brief pleasantries.
Small gestures indeed, but considering that the two leaders are on opposite sides of the spectrum on any possible bombing of Syria, these gestures speak volume.
All eyes will be on these two as the Summit proceeds.
President Obama today offered a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., while also imploring all Americans to remember that the work of the iconic civil rights leader remains unfinished.
“The arc of the moral universe may bend toward justice, but it doesn’t bend on its own,” Obama said on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a rainy afternoon in Washington. “We’ll suffer the occasional setback, but we will win these fights.”
Obama, who spoke to an estimated crowd of 20,000 — far fewer than 200,000-plus who attended the March on Washington and witnessed King’s “I Have a Dream” speech 50 years ago — recalled that day in 1963.
“On a hot summer day, they assembled here in our nation’s capitol, under the shadow of the great emancipator to offer testimony of injustice, to petition their government for redress, to awaken America’s long slumbering conscience,” he said.
“How he gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions, how he offered a salvation path to oppressed and oppressors alike. We would do well to recall that that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names never appeared in history books.”
This ‘March’ Interactive Captures the Moment
Acknowledging his own place in history, Obama praised King and the civil rights activists of his era: “They kept marching, America changed.”
He added, “and yes, eventually, the White House changed.”
Fifty years to the day after King Jr. delivered his speech, Obama stepped into the shadows of his personal hero, standing in the same spot to deliver remarks commemorating the 1963 March on Washington, a powerful example of the progress King envisioned.
For the nation’s first African-American president, the much-anticipated speech carried with it immense symbolism and high stakes.
“Let me just say for the record right now, it won’t be as good as the speech 50 years ago,” Obama told radio host Tom Joyner in an interview Tuesday. “I just want to get that out there early. Because when you are talking about Dr. King’s speech at the March on Washington, you’re talking about one of the maybe five greatest speeches in American history.
“And the words that he spoke at that particular moment, with so much at stake, and the way in which he captured the hopes and dreams of an entire generation, I think is unmatched.”
Yes, on Fox News’ Hannity tonight, the name of a so-called “agent of the Muslim Brotherhood” was named. Brooke Goldstein, Director of The Lawfare Project and frequent guest on Fox News programs, went out of her way to expose a rotten hidden Obama secret. A secret that Fox News and their viewers already knew the answer to. And that nasty secret is… that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our government and is working for the President.
Heck, this is not the first time we’re hearing this, so you shouldn’t be shocked. Even an elected official, Michele Bachmann warned us that this was happening thanks to Obama. A little over a year ago back in June 2012, Bachmann dropped this piece of nugget:
It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood has been found to be an unindicted co-conspirator on terrorism cases and yet it appears that there are individuals who are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have positions, very sensitive positions, in our Department of Justice, our Department of Homeland Security, potentially even in the National Intelligence Agency. I am calling upon the Justice Department and these various departments to investigate through the Inspector General to see who these people are and what access they have to our information.
We always wondered who Bachmann was referring to. She has a way of lying and making her lies sound like truths. But Bachmann never elaborated on her statement and now we know. Brooke is naming names!
Brook Goldstein, in responding to a question about why about why the terrorists “do not fear us” under President Obama as they clearly did under Bush, Brooke answered by stating something we’re sure she has researched and is now presenting as her fact. Brooke said that “we have a policy of cuddling the Muslim Brotherhood.”
She went on;
We have Muslim Brotherhood… in the Government. And I can name it right here, I can name Arif Alikhan who is our Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Policy Development, who is a Muslim Brotherhood Agent in our Government. Who is advising our foreign policy? This is a question that all Americans deserve an answer to.
Brooke however failed to include this little bit of info on Arif Alikhan. Yes, he is working in the government and yes, he is a Muslim, but Arif has been working in governmental affairs long before Obama became President. A quick trip to FactCheck found that Arif came from Los Angeles, where he served as deputy mayor for homeland security and public safety. Before working for Democratic Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Alikhan was a top prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1997 to 2006.
And get this: Arif even worked for the Bush Administration as Senior Counsel and Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Task Force. Yes, that same George Bush who Fox loves so much.
However, don’t let the decades of government work by Arif fool you. Brooke and Fox News have a talking-point to maintain and that talking point includes inducing the fear of all Muslims into their low information audience. And what better way to do that, than telling their audience that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the government, thanks to Obama?
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