Clipmarks | Clinton Clips

The sleazy advocacy of a leading "liberal hawk"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:43:15 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: What Galbraith kept completely concealed all these years was that a company he formed in 2004 came to acquire a large stake in a Kurdish oil field whereby, as the NYT put it, he "stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars." In other words, he had a direct -- and vast -- financial stake in the very policies which he was publicly advocating in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other American media outlets, where he was presented as an independent expert on the region. As Cobban wrote:

Galbraith has never expressed any such regrets, and last November, he was openly scornful of Bush's late-term agreement to withdraw from Iraq completely. The revelation that for many years Galbraith had a quite undisclosed financial interest in the political breakup of Iraq may now further reduce the clout, and the ranks, of the remaining liberal hawks.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

The New York Times today details the unbelievably sleazy story of Peter Galbraith, one of the Democratic Party's leading so-called "liberal hawks" and a generally revered Wise Man of America's Foreign Policy Community. He was Ambassador to Croatia under the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s and, in March, 2009, the Obama administration (specifically, Richard Holbrooke, Galbraith's mentor) successfully pressured the U.N. to name Galbraith as the second-in-command in Afghanistan. The NYT does a good job today of adding some important details to the story, but it was actually uncovered by Norwegian investigative journalists and reported at length a month ago in pieces such as this one by Helena Cobban. In essence, this highly Serious man has corruptly concealed vast financial stakes in the very policies and positions he has spent years advocating while pretending to be an independent expert.

Tags: iraq, war, empire, conquerst, neomercantilsim, theft, hawks

Saul Akinsky & Obama must be related

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:11:27 GMT

clipped by: dl211
clipper's remarks: Alinsky studied criminology as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, during which time he became friendly with Al Capone and his mobsters. Ryan Lizza, senior editor of The New Republic, offers a glimpse into Alinsky’s personality: “Charming and self-absorbed, Alinsky would entertain friends with stories -- some true, many embellished -- from his mob days for decades afterward. He was profane, outspoken, and narcissistic, always the center of attention

Clip Source: www.discoverthenetworks.org

SAUL ALINSKY

Two of his most notable modern-day disciples are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Born to Russian-Jewish parents in Chicago in 1909, Saul Alinsky was a Communist/Marxist fellow-traveler who helped establish the dual political tactics of confrontation and infiltration that characterized the 1960s and have remained central to all subsequent revolutionary movements in the United States. He never joined the Communist Party but instead, as David Horowitz puts it, became an avatar of the post-modern left.

Though Alinsky is rightfully understood to have been a leftist, his legacy is more methodological than ideological. He identified a set of very specific rules that ordinary citizens could follow, and tactics that ordinary citizens could employ, as a means of gaining public power. His motto was, “The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results.”

Tags: alinsky, obama, marxism, two, peas, in, a, pod

Lucid Links 11.09.09

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:48:12 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Only when you get to Obama’s page do you learn that Obama a) wasn’t president, and b) didn’t make any speech at the site of the Wall last year when he campaigned for the U.S. presidency in Europe.

In remembrance on the 8th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, our president …. sent Joe Biden to Ground Zero in New York City.

Deliberate ignorance:

The British press was out front (HT Hot Air) in telling the world that the perpetrator of the Fort Hood attack “worshiped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a ’spiritual adviser’ to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.” That the attack was jihad-inspired is not open to real dispute.

Meanwhile, the PC-addled American press does all it can to minimize the enormity (HT Mark Finkelstein at NewsBusters) of what occurred at Fort Hood and makes excuses for the perpetrator, even to the point of claiming that he might (even though he never experienced

Clip Source: www.bizzyblog.com

Presence:

In response to what is probably the worst attack on American soldiers on American soil since the end of the 19th century (Hawaii was not yet a state when Pearl Harbor was attacked), our president …. made a statement that came off as perfunctory, and stayed in Washington for three days. He will finally visit Fort Hood on Tuesday.

In response to what is probably the worst attack on American soldiers on American soil since the end of the 19th century, our previous president …. visited the wounded (HT Neptunus Lex) and “thanked Fort Hood’s military leaders and hospital staff for the ‘amazing care they are providing.’”

Remembrance:

To recall the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, our president …. won’t go to remember it. Meanwhile, Newsweek told readers that “Five American presidents delivered addresses at the Berlin Wall,” and includes Obama in a montage with

the four who did (Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush).

Tags: 0bama sent biden, anniversary of 9/11, 20th anniversary/fall of the berlin wall, u.s. press, ptsd excuse, british press, fort hood, hasan jihad-inspired

Time to walk away from Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:26:20 GMT

clipped by: jatfla
clipper's remarks: FTA: "We should stop feeling as though we have to apologize for our friendship with Israel, or pretend that the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors didn’t create their own misery through a series of wars against Israel which they lost. Let the Palestinians and the Israelis tend to their own interests, and we should tend to our own as well. When the Palestinians figure out that we are not interested in beating our heads against the wall by dealing with terrorists uninterested in actual negotiations, then perhaps they’ll produce effective leadership with more interest in coexistence rather than annihilation."

I think I agree.

Clip Source: hotair.com

Time to walk away from Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

It’s not often that I agree with Tom Friedman, and even in this instance my agreement comes with heavy qualifiers.

the US has no reason to pursue the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,

Administrations of both parties have approached the conflict as an apology for close ties with Israel, perhaps as a means of maintaining diplomatic credibility with Arab and Muslim nations in the region. Well, that hasn’t worked out very well, has it? The nations that hate us still hate us, and the nations that sell us oil would still sell us oil anyway. (We get more from Canada and Mexico, anyway.)

The Israelis have gone farther on several occasions, including especially with Bill Clinton, only to have Yasser Arafat reject their concessions and call for armed intifada instead.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process will never move forward under the current conditions because the Palestinians put terrorists in charge of their pseudo-state.

Fannie & Freddie NOT included in Obama's Financial Regulations

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:18:06 GMT

clipped by: billpar
clipper's remarks: In analyzing the mortgage crisis, economist Walter E. Williams has written: “Starting with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, that was given more teeth during the Clinton administration, Congress started intimidating banks and other financial institutions into making loans, so-called sub-prime loans, to high-risk homebuyers and businesses.

“The carrot offered was that these high-risk loans would be purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have known that this was a prescription for disaster but there was a congressional chorus of denial,” he added.

“The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not a failure of the free market because lending institutions in a free market would not have taken on the high-risk loans,” said Williams. “They were forced to by the heavy hand of government.”

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

Fannie, Freddie Were at Center of Financial Crisis But Are Not Included in Obama’s New Financial Regulations

(CNSNews.com) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-run mortgage giants, are absent from the Obama administration’s sweeping new financial regulations, despite the fundamental role played by both organizations in the financial system’s collapse.

Absent from Treasury’s 88-page proposal were any new regulations for the government-run mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two organizations widely cited as being at the heart of the country’s fiscal problems.

The absence of either Fannie or Freddie is notable, because the two companies once owned or controlled nearly $6 trillion worth of home and commercial mortgages, nearly half of the total U.S. mortgage market – and both companies were pioneers of the now infamous sub-prime mortgages that caused the mortgage market to implode late last year.

Tags: mortgage crises, gse, fannie, freddie

House health bill good for insurance companies, bad for citizens

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:21:39 GMT

clipped by: jasonkelly
clipper's remarks: This is how every issue ends in our corporate-owned government.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

it enshrines and subsidizes the "takeover" by the investor-owned insurance industry that occurred after the failure of the Clinton reform effort in 1994.

since it doesn't regulate premiums, the industry can respond to any regulation that threatens its profits by simply raising its rates.

What does the insurance industry get out of it? Tens of millions of new customers, courtesy of the mandate and taxpayer subsidies.

Is the House bill better than nothing? I don't think so. It simply throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry. The danger is that as costs continue to rise and coverage becomes less comprehensive, people will conclude that we've tried health reform and it didn't work. But the real problem will be that we didn't really try it. I would rather see us do nothing now, and have a better chance of trying again later and then doing it right.

Tags: politics, healthcare

Report: 237 millionaires in Congress

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:21:19 GMT

clipped by: bferman
clipper's remarks: Given that there are so many liberal democrats in congress and the whitehouse, can we finally stop demonizing wealthy people?

Clip Source: www.politico.com

As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.

Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires

All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.

lawmakers have profited from investments in companies that have received federal bailouts

Among executive branch officials, CRP says the richest is Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro, with a net worth estimated at $26 million.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is next, worth an estimated $21 million. President Barack Obama is the sixth-wealthiest, worth about an estimated $4 million

One caveat on those numbers: Federal financial disclosure laws don’t require members to list the value of their personal residences. That information could alter the net worth picture for many lawmakers.

Tags: politics, congress, obama, hillary, milionaire

Flu zombies reported in Mexico City

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:00:34 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse
clipper's remarks: The flu zombies first appeared saturday night as the city sewer system failed and manhole covers were seen being shoved aside. The 'walking dead' have been impossible to negotiate with simply because they're dead, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sent a forward team to attempt negotiations as early as Wednesday.

Sporadic gunfire could be head as Mexico's Head of National Security urged people in a televised address 'to remain calm and eat an enchillata.' Attempts to bribe the zombies reportedly failed when Treasury Secretary Juan Corona attempted to meet with the zombies and was promptly eaten.

Clip Source: www.thespoof.com

Flu zombies reported in Mexico City as residents brace for another night of horror!

Mexico City - Another night of looting and burning is expected as fearful residents of this once bustling city brace themselves for the expanding legion of Flu Zombies roaming city streets.

According to police captain Hector Gomez, the official head count on the zombies is about two million and growing everyday. An eyewitness says they appear to only roam at night and have caught several unsuspecting citizens while out foraging for food.

Mexican police after doing the Mexican Hat Dance in order to confuse the zombies. All were eaten.

The army has been called up but without protective masks they too fall ill and are neutralized by the sickness. One estimate puts the sick toll at 4.5 million with at least another million to fall by tomorrow.

Tags: flu zombies reported in mexico city

National Association of Retired Democrats

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:03:56 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Yet another reason why my parents have never joined this bunch

Clip Source: newsbusters.org

Far be it from NewsBusters to support more government social-program spending. Still, my antennae went up when I heard AARP's Nancy LeaMond dismiss a half-trillion in Medicare cuts as mere "scalpel" wielding. LeaMond, AARP Exec. VP, made her blithe statement while defending her organization's endorsement of ObamaCare to Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe today.

Which made me wonder: just who is Nancy LeaMond? Click, Wikipedia, click: whaddayaknow? Turns out that before coming to AARP, LeaMond was a senior Clinton administration appointee and a top Dem congressional staffer. Surprise, surprise!

She began her career as the Chief of Staff to U.S. Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar. On March 18, 1993 she was nominated by President Clinton to serve as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for Congressional Affairs. She served as Chief of Staff to [Clinton admin] U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.

Tags: aarp

Capitalism again proves to the the source of the problem

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:30:17 GMT

clipped by: darkeforce
clipper's remarks: This article is a must-read. The unfair capitalist healthcare system causes a glut on doctors in rich areas where they can earn more, and a sparsity in areas where they would earn less, like poor communities. Do people still think that America can get by without reforming Healthcare? Doctor's salaries need to be standardized, so a doctor working in a dirt-poor area of Arkansas is going make the same amount (by scale of skill) as a doctor in Malibu, California. 50 million uninsured Americans, and another 50 million underinsured Americans are too many people to be excluded from proper, complete healthcare. It's criminal, and amoral.

C'mon, all you right-wingers! Don't you think that women and newborn children dying from perfectly preventable causes during childbirth is more important that wondering if federal money is going to perform abortions? Don't you think that people ending up losing limbs or eyesight due to lack of care for their diabetes is more important than getting all work

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

SPECIAL REPORT: Are doctors what ails U.S. healthcare?

WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) - Nowhere in the United States has more doctors at its beck and call than White Plains, one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.

Doctors have been flocking to the area and surrounding Westchester County since the 1970s, drawn in part by an upper-class clientele who demand top-notch medical care and have the means to pay for it. The county has one of the highest median household incomes in the nation (about $77,000 a year in 2007), and the figures soar above six digits in suburbs like Scarsdale and Chappaqua, which former President Bill Clinton calls home.

Nearly 3,000 miles away, scaring up a doctor in Bakersfield, situated in California's economically battered Central Valley, is a lot harder. In fact, White Plains has more than twice the number of doctors per capita as Bakersfield, where needy patients until recently had to take a 2-hour bus trip to Fresno to see a diabetes treatment specialist.

Hillary Clinton: US Wants Israel To Stop Building West Bank Settlements 'Forever'

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:06:40 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: But Clinton has had to do a lot of explaining since last Saturday, when she stood with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and praised his offer to limit settlement construction without halting it.

Clinton has since tried to clarify the remarks, saying that the Israeli offer does not got far enough. Still, she has indicated that the Palestinians should resume negotiations with Israel without a full settlement halt as they demand.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

CAIRO — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the U.S. stance toward Israeli settlement building to worried Arab allies on Wednesday, saying Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the West Bank enclaves and wants to see their construction halted "forever."

Still, she said an Israeli offer to restrain – but not halt – construction represents "positive movement forward" toward resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Clinton met for an hour with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a hastily arranged stopover in the Egyptian capital to soothe Arab concerns that Washington is backing off demands for an Israeli settlement halt.

Egypt appeared reassured by Clinton's visit, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called for a resumption of negotiations.

Tags: israel, palestine, obama, clinton, foreing policy, settlers, peace, war, occupation, empire

Call your SENATORS......today!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:43:13 GMT

clipped by: mountainpalm
clipper's remarks: Nor does much of the rest of Mr. Siddiqui’s résumé. The White House has touted his role in the first phase of developing national organic standards. But those standards, as they first emerged in draft form in the Clinton years, were notoriously loose about allowing genetically engineered crops and the use of sewage-sludge fertilizers to be labeled as “organic.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Questions for a Trade Official

Published: November 3, 2009

When Islam Siddiqui appears for his Senate confirmation, possibly as early as next week, it will be time for some tough questions.

The White House has nominated Mr. Siddiqui for the position of chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the United States trade representative. He is presently a vice president at CropLife America, a coalition of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto, Dow Chemical and DuPont. That job doesn’t seem to square with the Obama administration’s professed interest in more sustainable, less chemically dependent approaches to agriculture.

There’s no disputing Mr. Siddiqui’s experience in government — in California and at the national level. But the business of CropLife — an arm of which openly scoffed at Michelle Obama’s plans for an organic garden — is to increase exports of agricultural chemicals.

Copenhagen Consequences:What You Need To Know

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:43:47 GMT

clipped by: WhatAreWeDoing

Clip Source: www.heritage.org

November 2, 2009

Copenhagen Consequences: What You Need To Know

The Next Kyoto?

U.S. Policy: In 1997 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Byrd-Hagel Resolution, which warned President Clinton not to enter into any global warming treaty that leaves out developing nations or hurts the American economy. This is still U.S. policy today and should serve as the overarching guidelines for the December global warming conference in Copenhagen.

An Expiring Kyoto: The Kyoto Protocol is the major global warming treaty currently in place, and it expires in 2012. The Copenhagen conference has long been seen by Kyoto proponents as critical for extending the provisions into the decades ahead.

Kyoto Not Ratified: After Vice President Al Gore agreed to the protocol, President Clinton failed to even submit it to the Senate, knowing there wasn't support for a treaty that so obviously violated the Byrd-Hagel Resolution.

DEATH MATCH cancelled

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:25:27 GMT

clipped by: mountainpalm
clipper's remarks: Are you disappointed?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and we have nothing else to spend our time on these days..........How boring.

Clip Source: www.newsmax.com

Clinton-Bush 'Debate' Called Off

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 3:28 PM

There won't be a "death match" between former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush after all.

The New York Post reports that the event, originally scheduled for Feb. 25 at Radio City Music Hall, has been canceled because it was being touted as "death match faceoff."

"This event ... was supposed to be a discussion between the two former presidents, and has been canceled because it was not being billed as such by an overeager promoter," Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna told the Post. He said the event was actually intended to be a moderated panel discussion rather than a debate, as part of a series pairing liberal and conservative thinkers called "Minds That Move The World."

'The Axis of Idiots' - note from a Retired Marine

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:58:09 GMT

clipped by: billpar
clipper's remarks: You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam, is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's butt. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.

Clip Source: us.mc1100.mail.yahoo.com

'The Axis of Idiots'

Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers
in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam.. You're a fake

Tags: politics