Tag: John Kerry

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Politics

American Flag Raised in Cuba

Definitely a historic day given the high animosity between the two countries over the last 54 years. Today, with a visit from Secretary of State, John Kerry, the United States’ flag was raised over the Embassy in Cuba.

“Thank you for joining us at this truly historic moment as we prepare to raise the flag … symbolizing the restoration of diplomatic relations after 54 years,” Kerry said at the ceremony, addressing the crowd in both English and Spanish.

Kerry’s visit marks the symbolic end of one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. But signs of mistrust linger, and beyond the pomp and circumstance lies a long road back from more than half a century of diplomatic animosity.

On Thursday, Cuban state media put out an article in the name of Fidel Castro, writing on the occasion of his 89th birthday, in which he made no reference to the historic resumption of U.S.-Cuba relations but instead waxed on about the damage the American embargo has caused Cuba and the anniversary of the United States dropping an atomic bomb on Japan.

The rhetoric from the leader of the Cuban revolution, and the face of anti-U.S. resistance, is not unexpected. But it underscores the long-standing tensions at play as Washington and Havana work to thaw the decadeslong chill in relations.

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Politics

New Poll – Majority of Americans Want Nuclear Deal with Iran

While Republicans continue to crucify President Obama for even trying to negotiate a deal with Iran that would end that country’s nuclear program, a new Washington Post poll finds that Republicans are once again on the wrong side of the issue, as Americans overwhelming support the negotiations.

Overall, the poll finds 59 percent support an agreement in which the United States and its negotiating partners lift major economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Thirty-one percent oppose a deal.

Support outpaces opposition across nearly all demographic and political groups, with liberals (seven in 10) and Democrats (two-thirds) the most supportive. At least six in 10 independents and moderates also back the broad idea of a deal with Iran.

Republicans are about evenly divided on an Iran deal, with 47 percent in support and 43 percent opposed. The split contrasts with Republican lawmakers’ widespread backing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech deriding the potential deal in early March before a joint meeting of lawmakers. Additionally, all but seven Republican senators signed a letter to Iran’s leadership warning that Congress or a future president could override any agreement made by the Obama administration.

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Benghazi Politics

State Department – John Kerry Will Not Comply With Republican Subpoena

The Secretary of State John Kerry would not be available and will not be complying with the subpoena issued by Republicans. The Republicans are demanding that Kerry make himself available on the May 21st, but according to State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf, that is not going to happen.

Harf said that Kerry “has been made aware” of the subpoena, but still plans to be out of the country and in Mexico on the 21st. She said the State Department was “surprised” that Darrell Issa skipped over offering an invitation and went straight to issuing a subpoena. She very strongly intimated the subpoena was issued for partisan political purposes and suggested Republicans are hypocrites for decrying subpoenas when they were issued against Condoleezza Rice.

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chemical weapons News Politics syrian invasion

Yes Little Olivia, There Is A God

“…but he isn’t about to do it — and It can’t be done, obviously.”

A couple more faux pas like the one Secretary of State John Kerry made at a briefing on Syria earlier this week and we’ll have achieved World Peace in no time!

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Politics Syria

Sec. Kerry – It’s Not Obama’s Red Line, it’s “a global red line”

US Secretary of State John Kerry says he and Arab League foreign ministers have agreed that the Syrian president’s alleged use of chemical weapons had crossed a “global red line“.

Mr Kerry, speaking in Paris, is in Europe to muster support for action against President Bashar al-Assad.

“Assad’s deplorable use of chemical weapons crosses an international, global red line,” he said.

The Arab countries are divided on the question of military strikes on Syria.

The BBC’s Hugh Schofield reports from Paris that some like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are in favour while others like Syria’s neighbours Jordan and Lebanon are far more cautious, worried about the conflict spreading across their borders.

The US accuses Mr Assad’s forces of killing 1,429 people in a sarin gas attack on 21 August.

Mr Assad’s government blames the attack on rebels fighting to overthrow him in the country’s two-and-a-half-year civil war, which has claimed some 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.

There are reports that rebel forces have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maalula, north of Damascus.

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Politics

Vladimir Putin Calls Sec.Kerry a Liar on Syria

Things aren’t exactly warming up between the Obama administration and Vladimir Putin, even as President Obama arrived in St. Petersburg for the G-20 summit.

Putin called Obama Secretary of State John Kerry a liar over Kerry’s testimony this week before Congress.

The question may be al-Qaeda’s influence on the Syrian rebels, an issue Kerry has downplayed.

Speaking to his human rights council Wednesday, Putin said, “This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them (the Americans), and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad.”

Putin has criticized Obama administration claims that Bashar Assad’s government attacked the rebels with chemical weapons.

Last month, Obama canceled a summit meeting with Putin after a series of U.S.-Russian disputes, including Russia’s decision to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

As for the new flap over Kerry’s testimony, the Associated Press reported:

“It was unclear exactly what Putin was referencing, but Kerry was asked Tuesday while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if the Syrian opposition had become more infiltrated by al-Qaeda.

“Kerry responded that that was ‘basically incorrect’ and that the opposition has ‘increasingly become more defined by its moderation.’ …

“In testimony Wednesday, Kerry said he didn’t agree that ‘a majority (of the opposition) are al-Qaeda and the bad guys.’ Extremists amount to 15 to 25% of the opposition, he said, including al-Nusra and many other groups that are ‘fighting each other, even now.'”

Asked about Putin’s comments, National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said, “Well, we certainly would side with Secretary Kerry in that back-and-forth.”

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Politics

Secretary John Kerry – Bashar Assad is a “Thug and Murderer”

The evidence is “clear and compelling” that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against its own people last week, Secretary of State John Kerry told the American people Friday.

The U.S., Kerry said, knows where the rockets carrying the chemicals were fired from — territory controlled by the Assad regime — and when they were launched.

His words came as the world waits for what are expected to be U.S. missile strikes on military targets inside Syria in coming days.

If a “thug and murderer” such as President Bashar Assad is allowed to do that without consequences, Kerry warned, there will be “no end to the test of our resolve. … It matters if nothing is done.”

In an appearance at the State Department, the secretary also said the death toll from that alleged chemical weapons attack was higher than has been reported. According to Kerry, U.S. intelligence has concluded that 1,429 people were killed. While he was speaking, the White House released some declassified details of what U.S. intelligence officials say they have learned about the attack.

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Politics

Fox News Provided The Talking Point Mark Kessler Used to Attack Sec. John Kerry

I never thought I’ll say this. But I’ve found someone who makes the Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones of the world, seem like child’s play. Pennsylvania Police Chief Mark Kessler is gathering up a YouTube following, with his frequent profanity laced videos against Liberals, or to use his word, Libtards. In one of his latest video, the police chief targets Secretary of State John Kerry and The United Nations.

Mark Kessler’s rant came directly from this Fox News headline: Kerry says US will sign UN treaty on arms regulation despite lawmaker opposition. So at least we know where Mark is getting his info.

In the video, the police chief is seen looking at a piece of paper as he read the Fox headline, “Kerry says US will sign UN treaty on arms regulations despite lawmaker opposition.” Mark then sighs, shakes his head and continues, calling Kerry a “piece of sh*t traitor.”

After some other choice words for the Secretary of State and the United Nations, Kessler looks at the camera and screamed, “come and take it motherfu*kers” as he picks up an automatic weapon and fires a few rounds into the mountainside.

He later received a 30 days suspension from his duties as police chief, but promised to return and continue his work after his suspension is over. “I make no apologies,” Mark wrote on his website after receiving his punishment, “and I have no regrets. [I’ll be back] 30 days from tonight.”

Fox News, once again provides the ammunition for the gradual dismantling of any sanity this society once had.

Warning: The video below is unedited.

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Mitt Romney Politics Senate

Are You Really Ready For Another Romney In Office? Tagg, He’s It!

Tagg Romney is considering a run in the special Senate election now that Scott Brown has opted out, the Truth Squad has learned.

Calls for Romney, 42, to join in the short campaign to replace Secretary of State John F. Kerry have increased since the Herald first reported heavyweight Republicans are urging both Romney and his mother, Ann, to get in.

The eldest son of former governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney already has statewide name recognition and could quickly ramp up the campaign infrastructure for a short, five-month race.

The father of six was a regular on the campaign trail in both of his father’s failed races for president in 2008 and 2012, which would give him some political know-how while working to win over Bay State voters. But the younger Romney is weighing joining the fray against remaining with his successful venture capital firm, Solamere. Many Democrats also have noted Mitt Romney’s dismal Bay State returns in the most recent presidential election, losing the state by 23 points.

r/t Boston Herald

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Benghazi Domestic Policies

White House Source – Hillary Clinton Prefers John Kerry Over Susan Rice

A White House source is saying today that if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were to pick her successor, she wouldn’t choose Ambassador Susan Rice, but would instead go with Senator John Kerry.

According to reporter Michael Sneed at theChicago Sun-Times, the source said, “Hillary is not close to Rice, who is tough — but is not the friendliest person. And Hillary’s brief comment recently that Rice had done ‘a great job’ was considered underwhelming and tepid.”

The source went on,

“It would be hard for President Obama to back away from Rice, but he’s dealing with what’s known as ‘the Club of the Senate,’ which includes powerful U.S. Sen. John McCain — a Republican — who is adamantly against Rice and a big supporter of Kerry’s.”

Although the White House has made no official announcement yet regarding the next Secretary of State, a decision is expected soon.

h/t Mediaite

Categories
Benghazi Politics

Meanwhile, Sen John Kerry Remains Quiet

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry is angling to be the nation’s top diplomat by being, well, diplomatic.

The longtime Democratic lawmaker from Massachusetts has largely stayed quiet while President Barack Obama considers him for the next secretary of state. Kerry has asked his supporters to avoid overt lobbying of the White House on his behalf. And he’s defended his chief rival for the post, Susan Rice, amid Republican criticism of her initial explanation of the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

Kerry’s strategy reflects what people close to the senator say is his disdain for some aspects of Washington’s personnel politics. But it also underscores his awkward role in the process. If Obama taps Rice for the job Kerry covets, the senator would have to shepherd her difficult nomination through the foreign relations committee he chairs.

White House officials say Obama is still mulling over his pick to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, though a decision is expected soon. Rice, who has a close relationship with the president, is widely viewed as the favorite. But Kerry’s stock may be rising as GOP lawmakers threaten to hold up Rice’s confirmation until they’re satisfied with her answers about the early public statements about the Benghazi attack.

But don’t expect Kerry or his allies to make his case to Obama as the president nears a decision, as is standard practice for people who are on a short list for a new job. People close to the senator say he finds backroom lobbying for top jobs irritating and counterproductive. That view, they say, is shaped from his experience on both sides of the process: as a contender for previous high-level jobs and as the one making the decision in 2004, when he tapped John Edwards as his running mate during his presidential bid.

“John Kerry is very seasoned at how personnel decisions get made by chief executives,” said Michael Meehan, a former Kerry aide. “He wouldn’t be out there advising anybody on how to make this decision.”

While Rice has several high-level advocates in the White House, particularly among advisers who have been with Obama since his 2008 campaign, Kerry has his fans within the administration as well. He backed Obama early in his 2008 presidential run and was under consideration to be his first secretary of state. More recently, Kerry spent months helping Obama with his campaign debate preparations, playing the role of Republican nominee Mitt Romney in practice sessions.

h/t AP

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Benghazi Politics rachel maddow Senate

Why Are Republicans Going After Susan Rice? Rachel Maddow Explains – Video

Rachel Maddow has a very interesting take on why Republicans – led by John McCain and Lindsey Graham – are so against the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice. And according to Maddow’s theory, the reason has absolutely nothing to do with Rice’s ability to do the job and everything to do with another Massachusetts Senator, John Kerry.

Maddow explains: Ambassador Rice is one of two candidates reportedly on the short list to become the next Secretary of State after Hillary Clinton. The other candidate on that short list besides Rice, is Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. And if somehow Susan Rice is disqualified from becoming Secretary of State and President Obama picks John Kerry instead, guess what happens in the United States Senate… Massachusetts suddenly has an open Senate Seat, as well as a certain Republican Senator from that state [Scott Brown] who is basically sitting around doing nothing since he just lost his re-election effort [against Elizabeth Warren].

In her typical way, Maddow breaks it down like this:

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