Obama administration

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Earth, Wind & Fire Flower Again in Obama's America

White House concert helps revive popularity

(Newser) - Earth, Wind & Fire is back on top again in its 40th year, playing stadiums for the first time in a quarter-century. And their resurgent success, the band tells Newsweek, is based on a mixture of '60s idealism and the good favor of the president. Barack Obama has always been...

Congress Wants McChrystal in Hot Seat

Members of both parties want testimony, but Pentagon is not forthcoming

(Newser) - With the White House beset by classified leaks and agonizing over a new Afghan strategy, lawmakers from both parties in both Houses of Congress are calling for a sitdown with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has refused requests for testimony from McChrystal until...

Post Held Off Afghan Story at DoD Request

Pentagon got one-day delay, and redacted McChrystal report

(Newser) - When Bob Woodward obtained Gen. Stanley McChrystal's classified report on Afghanistan, the Obama administration asked for and got a one-day delay in publication from the Washington Post, the paper reports. Woodward and the Post’s editor met with Pentagon officials Sunday and agreed to remove some sensitive information from the...

Biden Plan Would Target al-Qaeda, not Taliban

 Biden Plan 
 Would Target 
 al-Qaeda, 
 not Taliban 
Afghan war rethink
Sep 23, 2009 7:27 AM CDT

Biden Plan Would Target al-Qaeda, not Taliban

No consensus has emerged in White House war room

(Newser) - The Obama administration’s national security heavyweights have yet to reach any kind of consensus on a strategy for Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. Obama is considering both increasing troop levels to carry out his original counterinsurgency strategy, and an alternative plan from Joe Biden that would pull troops...

Obama Raises Bar on What Passes for State Secrets

AG must personally approve all requests to keep programs veiled

(Newser) - The Obama administration will announce much more stringent rules on state secrets today, two Justice Department officials tell the Washington Post, in what amounts to a major shift from Bush-era practice. To keep a program secret, an organization—including intelligence agencies and the military—will have to convince the attorney...

Who Leaked to Woodward? Good Luck
 Who Leaked 
 to Woodward? 
 Good Luck 
ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2009 11:50 AM CDT

Who Leaked to Woodward? Good Luck

McChrystal report could help the Pentagon, or the White House, or...

(Newser) - The question du jour in Washington is who leaked Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s report advocating an increased troop presence in Afghanistan to Bob Woodward, Ben Smith writes on Politico. But the outcome of this tried and true “capital parlor game” is far from certain. Some Beltway insiders think the...

Obama Set to Bankrupt US, Appease Foes

Wrongheaded policies to be on display at UN, G20 meetings

(Newser) - President Obama's agenda can be summed up as "beggar thy neighbor, bankrupt thy country, and appease thy foe," as can be seen in his plans for summit meetings this week, Bret Stephens writes in the Wall Street Journal. The president chairs a UN Security Council meeting on...

White House Throws Weight Into State Races

Some Democrat's fret about administration's increasingly partisan direction

(Newser) - The Obama administration is becoming increasingly assertive in trying to influence state-level elections around the country, the New York Times reports. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and other top political strategists have made it plain that they're willing to play hardball to strengthen the Democratic ticket where necessary—...

Pragmatic Style Makes Gates White House Heavyweight

Defense secretary helps dismantle missile shield program he backed under Bush

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has bridged the gap between the Bush and Obama administrations and become a major player in reshaping national security policy in the process, officials tell the New York Times. His pragmatic style—as seen in his decision to ditch the missile defense system he signed off...

How the Crazies Took Over
 How the Crazies Took Over 
Sep 21, 2009 3:58 PM CDT

How the Crazies Took Over

Birthers, Limbaugh, Beck fill vacuum as Obama tries to stay above the fray

(Newser) - As recently as this spring, the Tea Party movement seemed anemic and wonky. But in the months that followed, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and others whipped the right-wing fringe into such a frenzy that a “separate reality grew like a second head on the American polity,” Philip Weiss...

Blue Dogs Offer Own Spin on Finance Reform

Float alternative to Obama's financial protection agency

(Newser) - Blue Dogs are digging in against the idea of creating a “consumer financial protection agency,” a key provision in Barack Obama’s financial regulatory reform plan, Politico reports. Instead, they want existing regulators to collaborate by way of a “consumer financial protection council.” “We’re...

Fed Shows Backbone, but Obama Cowers Before Banks

Reining in pay is good politics, good economics: Krugman

(Newser) - Just as the recession wanes and the financial system shows signs of the health, banks are returning to their worst habits, says Paul Krugman. Not only are paychecks soaring to pre-Lehman levels, but the financial sector is using its muscle to block "even the most minimal reforms." While...

US Still Wrong About Nukes: Iran's Leader

Khamenei reacts to Obama scrapping missile defense

(Newser) - Iran's supreme leader said today that US officials know they are wrongly accusing Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. In Iran's first official reaction to the US decision to scrap a European missile intercept system to defend against threats from Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed President Barack Obama's administration...

Obama's New Missile Plan Offers Better Defense: Gates

Strategy deploys more missiles 6 years earlier than under Bush plan

(Newser) - The Obama administration is upgrading missile defense plans in Europe, not abandoning them, writes Robert Gates, the author of the Bush-era plans recently scrapped, in a New York Times op-ed. The previous plan would not have installed the proposed 10 long-range interceptors in Central Europe until at least 2017, while...

Clinton Torn Between Leading and Blending In

Blunt talk and campaign-style events ruffle some diplomatic feathers

(Newser) - Hillary Clinton has impressed many in her 8 months as secretary of state but her own leadership aspirations are sometimes all too obvious, Glenn Kessler writes at the Washington Post. Clinton has forged close working relationships with other Cabinet members and made her desire to cooperate clear, Kessler writes, but...

Russia Silent on Iran Concessions

Critics charge that Obama may have scrapped missile shield for nothing

(Newser) - While Russia's leaders praised President Obama's decision to drop plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe yesterday, they were conspicuously silent on whether they would, in return, join the West in pressuring Iran to halt its nuclear program, the New York Times reports. If Russia doesn't start taking a...

CIA Chiefs Ask Obama to Scrap Interrogation Probe

Disclosure of CIA methods will help the enemy, decrease national security, former directors warn

(Newser) - Seven former CIA directors—appointees of both political parties—are calling on the Obama administration to call off the Justice Department’s investigation of Bush-era interrogation practices, the Hill reports. The probe, ordered by AG Eric Holder, will reveal too much about the CIA’s methods in an environment where...

Obama's Gandhi Act Ties Supporters in Knots
Obama's Gandhi Act Ties Supporters in Knots
OPINION
Sep 18, 2009 2:03 PM CDT

Obama's Gandhi Act Ties Supporters in Knots

President seeks a fundamental change in our political discourse: Goodman

(Newser) - Even President Obama's fans are beginning to wonder when—or even if—his "inner fighter" is going to emerge, writes Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe. His collaborative style entranced many during the campaign, but supporters are groaning as the president listens calmly to the opposition rather than putting...

Michelle Pushes Reform, Recalls Sasha's Illness

First lady turns attention to health care and its impact on women

(Newser) - Michelle Obama joined her husband's push for health care reform today with a personal pitch aimed at women, reports Politico. She recalled her father's fight with multiple sclerosis as well as an illness daughter Sasha suffered as an infant. "I think about what on earth would we have done...

Putin Praises US for Ditching Missile Shield

But Moscow may not support nuclear sanctions against Iran

(Newser) - In a development sure to further tick off President Obama's critics on the right, Vladimir Putin says he's quite pleased with the decision to scrap an American missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, the New York Times reports. “I very much hope that this correct and brave decision will be...

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