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Posts by Faiz Shakir
Reid: 'I Really Do Believe President Bush Is the Worst President We've Ever Had'
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on January 5, 2009 at 9:22 AM.
In early 2006, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said of President Bush: “I really do believe this man will go down as the worst president this country has ever had.” Sunday morning on Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked Reid whether he regrets making that statement. Reid refused to back down. “I think you just have to call things the way you see them,” he said. “I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had.”
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Bill Richardson Withdraws From Commerce Secretary Nomination
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on January 4, 2009 at 10:46 AM.
NBC News reports:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.
"Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," he said Sunday in a report by NBC News' Andrea Mitchell. "But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process."
A federal grand jury is investigating whether a California firm, CDR Financial Products, won a lucrative $1.6 million contract from the state of New Mexico after it contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson.
Obama issued this statement:
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Cheney: 'I Don’t Have Any Idea' Why People Don't Like Me
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 29, 2008 at 4:19 AM.
Only 29 percent of Americans approve of the job Dick Cheney is doing as vice president. In an interview with his hometown Wyoming newspaper, the Caspar Star-Tribune, Cheney expressed his bewilderment over his low approval numbers:
QUESTION: How do you explain your low approval rating?
CHENEY: I don't have any idea. I don't follow the polls.
My experience has been over the years that if you govern based upon poll numbers, upon trying to improve your overall poll ratings, people I've encountered who do that are people who won't make tough decisions. And the job the president has, and those who advise him, is to make those basic fundamental decisions for the nation that nobody else is authorized or able to make.
In addition to his well-documented abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law, Cheney's public disapproval ratings might be explained in part by his own personal disregard for the public. When told that two-thirds of Americans disapproved of the Iraq war, Cheney responded "so?" adding that he didn't care what the American people thought.
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A Look Inside Bush's 'Pardongate'
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 26, 2008 at 10:58 AM.
After first pardoning "a Brooklyn real estate developer accused of scamming hundreds of poor, minority homebuyers - and whose father donated $28,500 to the Republican Party this year," the Bush White House moved quickly to reverse course. Bush revoked the pardon for Isaac Toussie after the White House acknowledged that the Brooklyn housing scammer did not meet pardon guidelines.
Putting aside the fact that Bush decided it was fine to grant a pardon for a predatory mortgage lender in the midst of a recession, there were a number of other improprieties in the pardon of Toussie:
- First of all, it had been granted by Bush despite the fact that the Pardon Attorney, Ronald L. Rogers, had not given a formal recommendation for it.
- Also, Toussie had not qualified for a pardon per Justice Department guidelines because it had not yet been five years since the completion of his sentence.
- Furthermore, Toussie's pardon came after his father, Robert, made his first political donation of $28,500 to the national Republican party in April.
Perhaps the most intriguing matter is the process by which the White House decided to issue the pardon. Toussie had hired Bradford Berenson, a former top lawyer in the White House counsel's office from 2001-2003, to handle the case.
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Biden to Chair New 'White House Task Force on Working Families'
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 21, 2008 at 11:03 AM.
President Barack Obama will form a "White House Task Force on Working Families," to be chaired by Vice President Joe Biden. According to a transition team press release, "The Task Force will be a major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America." On ABC's This Week, Biden explained:
My focus is going to be, I'm going to chair this group and it is designed to do the one thing we use as a yardstick of economic success of our administration, is the middle class growing? Is the middle class getting better? Is the middle class no longer being left behind? And we'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs. The things that affect people's daily lives. I will be the guy honchoing that policy.
The task force will be comprised of the Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. It will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities.
Obama's New SoT: What You Need to Know About Ray LaHood
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 20, 2008 at 5:49 AM.
Ten years ago, Ray LaHood was gaveling in House impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Today, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he would be serving as the next Secretary of Transportation.
LaHood is a moderate Republican who has broken with his party over Amtrak funding, voting yes last summer to expand passenger rail service. He also broke with the GOP on the Saving Energy Through Transportation Act. In 2005, he told the Peoria Journal-Star that "we've got a good Amtrak system in Illinois and I don't think we want to destroy it by talking about privatization."
Friends of the Earth responded to the LaHood nomination by saying: "While his overall record on energy and environment issues is poor, LaHood has in recent years broken with many in his party to support crucial investments in passenger rail and public transportation, and he is a member of the Congressional Bike Caucus." LaHood also supported the bicycle commuter benefit bill.
But while LaHood has certain strengths, working long hours doesn't appear to be one of them. When Democrats ousted the right-wing Do-Nothing Congress in 2006, LaHood worried about returning to a five-day work week:
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Delusional Dick: Cheney Says Bush Will Be Popular in 30 Years
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 18, 2008 at 7:19 AM.
In an interview with the Washington Times yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney asserted that Bush's "place in history likely would grow during the next 20 to 30 years." Arguing his case, Cheney cited President Ford's decision -- unpopular at the time -- to pardon President Nixon:
"By the time of [Ford's] passing a couple of years ago, opinion had totally turned on that," Mr. Cheney said. "In fact, most people by then, even many who had been very critical 30 years before, were in agreement that in fact it was a good decision, it was the right thing to do from the standpoint of the country.
"I'm personally persuaded that this president and this administration will look very good 20 or 30 years down the road in light of what we've been able to accomplish."
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Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist 'Beaten in Custody'
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 16, 2008 at 9:36 AM.
Muntader al-Zaidi, the now-infamous shoe-hurling Iraqi journalist, has reportedly been "beaten in custody," according to the BBC. Al-Zaidi's brother reports that the journalist is suffering from a broken hand, broken ribs, and internal bleeding. Yesterday, TV al-Sharqiya in Iraq reported that the al-Zaidi had "signs of tortures on his thighs." Meanwhile, thousands of Iraqis have taken to streets on Tuesday for second day to demand al-Zaidi's release.
Obama's Weekly Address: Taps Another Clintonite for HUD
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 13, 2008 at 7:13 AM.
In his weekly address, President-elect Barack Obama announced he was selecting the "widely respected housing commissioner for New York City," Shaun Donovan, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Donovan worked at HUD in the Clinton administration, leading an effort to help make housing affordable for nearly two million Americans. He "has experience in all facets of the affordable housing market, having worked in both the nonprofit and private sectors and in academia as a scholar of housing policy." In his address, Obama said this appointment signals a new way of approaching the challenge of affordable housing:
We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities just won't do. That means promoting cities as the backbone of regional growth by not only solving the problems in our cities, but seizing the opportunities in our growing suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas.
Watch it:
Reporter Suggests Rahm Emanuel May Have Tipped Off Feds about Blagojevich
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 9, 2008 at 11:03 AM.
Marcy Wheeler catches local Chicago press reporting that Rahm Emanuel may have tipped off federal investigators that Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) was engaging in corrupt acts. Jack Conaty, a Chicago reporter for the local Fox affiliate, said on-air that Rahm Emanuel might have been responsible for causing federal investigators to act quickly to apprehend Blagojevich this morning:
CONATY: We did receive a tip this morning that perhaps all of this came together so quickly because the Governor may have reached out to Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect’s chief of staff, in attempting to leverage filling the Senate seat. And it may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did.
Watch it:
Loyal Bushie Won't Vacate Office Under Obama
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 5, 2008 at 8:57 AM.
Mary Beth Buchanan was appointed by President Bush to serve as U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh in Sept. 2001. Buchanan has held several significant posts within the Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzales Justice Department, most notably serving as director the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
Just last month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Buchanan's reign was expected to end. Indeed, when a new president is elected, U.S. attorneys of both parties generally submit their resignations to make way for the new appointees. But Buchanan has other plans:
Despite a new administration coming into power, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said she plans to stick around.
"It doesn't serve justice for all the U.S. attorneys to submit their resignations all at one time," she said yesterday. [...]
More than that, she said she would consider working in the Obama administration. She would not discuss what her future might hold beyond the U.S. attorney's office.
"I am open to considering further service to the United States," Ms. Buchanan said.
She's been described by colleagues as the quintessential loyal Bushie. "She is very focused to the department first of all," said one assistant U.S. attorney, who asked not to be named. "She's not independent, and I don't think she wants to be."
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Blackwater Plans New Mission: Fighting Pirates
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 3, 2008 at 2:34 PM.
The private security firm Blackwater is planning to offer a new service to make money: protection from the pirate-infested waters off the coast of East Africa. "Blackwater's push to land its first antipiracy contract is part of a strategy to build its business outside its State Department security work in Iraq, which brings in between $300 million and $400 million a year." The security company may be looking for new lucrative opportunities partly because the Iraqi government has now ratified a law stripping Blackwater contractors of immunity. Indeed, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell noted the legal benefits of operating in the open sea: "We would be allowed to fire if fired upon; the right of self-defense is one that exists in international waters."
UPDATE: There Will Be No White House 'Impeach Bush' Ornament After All
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 2, 2008 at 4:18 PM.
Update: (For the original story scroll down)
This morning, the Washington Post reported that Seattle-based artist Deborah Lawrence would have her ornament hung on the White House Christmas tree. The ornament saluted Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) for attempting to impeach Bush. Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for First Lady Laura Bush, reported this afternoon that the ornament would not be displayed:
"It's inappropriate and it's not being hung," she said. She said that when asked about the issue yesterday, the White House tree decorations were not complete. "We reviewed the ornament along with all the [other] ornaments, and Mrs. Bush deemed it inappropriate for the holiday tree."
Lawrence responded, "Oh, dear. This doesn't really surprise me. But it's disappointing that I won't get to see it on the tree."
For the original story click through to the flip side.Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Fox News Shut Out (Again) at Obama Press Conference
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on December 1, 2008 at 9:12 AM.
Fishbowl DC has been keeping tabs of which media outlets have been allowed to ask a question at President-elect Barack Obama's five press conferences so far. They report Fox News is 0-5.
"Questions instead went to such outlets as ABC, New York Times, CBS, Reuters and the Associated Press."
Bill Kristol Thinks America Should Reward Torturers
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on November 30, 2008 at 9:11 AM.
In his new Weekly Standard column, right-wing pundit Bill Kristol lays out a to-do list for President Bush before he leaves office. He urges Bush to deliver speeches "reminding Americans of our successes fighting the war on terror." Kristol dreams, "Over time, Bush might even get deserved credit for effective conduct of the war on terror."
After urging Bush to fight the incoming administration's desire to close Guantanamo, Kristol concludes with this:
One last thing: Bush should consider pardoning-and should at least be vociferously praising-everyone who served in good faith in the war on terror, but whose deeds may now be susceptible to demagogic or politically inspired prosecution by some seeking to score political points. The lawyers can work out if such general or specific preemptive pardons are possible; it may be that the best Bush can or should do is to warn publicly against any such harassment or prosecution. But the idea is this: The CIA agents who waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the NSA officials who listened in on phone calls from Pakistan, should not have to worry about legal bills or public defamation. In fact, Bush might want to give some of these public servants the Medal of Freedom at the same time he bestows the honor on Generals Petraeus and Odierno. They deserve it.
In the Bush era, the Medal of Freedom has come to absurdly represent a reward for those who carried out policy failures at the urging of the Bush administration. By this standard, the implementers of torture and warrantless wiretapping certainly qualify for such a medal.
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