President Obama: Bin Laden raid is ‘most important single day of my presidency’

MoonHowler

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Brian Williams hosts tonight. He described this event as being the most important of his journalistic career. Rock Center with Brian Williams ‘Inside the Situation Room’ airs Wednesday 9pm/8c on NBC.

MSNBC:

“I did choose the risk,” the president said in an exclusive interview with Rock Center Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams. “The reason I was willing to make that decision of sending in our SEALs to try to capture or kill bin Laden rather than to take some other options was ultimately because I had 100 percent faith in the Navy SEALs themselves.”

A year after the May 1, 2011, raid on bin Laden’s compound, Obama and several of the advisers who helped plan the operation, known as “Operation Neptune’s Spear,” spoke exclusively to NBC News, reflecting on the tense months spent planning and debating the feasibility of this daring raid. The interviews occurred before the president made an unannounced visit to Kabul on Tuesday, where he and President Hamid Karzai signed an agreement on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

“This had to be such a close-held operation,” the president said in the interview airing tonight at 9pm/8c on NBC. “There were only a handful of staff in the White House who knew about this.”

The president did not share news of the mission’s launch with his staff, or with the first lady.

“Even a breath of this in the press could have chased bin Laden away,” Obama said. “We didn’t know at that point whether there might be underground tunnels coming out of that compound that would allow him to escape.”

The President threatens Governor Jan Brewer?

MoonHowler

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Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona apparently forgot her manners, again, and pointed her finger in the face of the President of the United States on the tarmac during President Obama’s latest trip to Arizona.  Governor Brewer later told the press that she felt threatened by the President.  A picture speaks  a thousand words.

I don’t know what Governor Brewer thought the President was going to do to her.  They were in plain view and the secret service security team was right there. 

Sadly, this encounter is just another example of the breakdown of protocol and manners in the country. Pointing or wagging one’s finger in the face of the President of the United States, regardless of who he is is simply not acceptable.  I feel certain that Brewer is now the darling of those Obama haters who feel she ‘told him off good.’ 

I think that protocol needs to be taught in every classroom across America.  Obviously much has been forgotten or in Brewer’s case, never learned.  There are just certain behaviors one upholds when speaking to the President of the United States.  We use terms like’ Mr. President’ when addressing him. We even do that if he is our best friend when in public.   (or her if that should ever come to pass) 

Brewer set a bad example for everyone who sees this picture and is an embarrassment to our country.  The eyes of the world are on us.  What must they be thinking?

 

Tea Partiers accost president

MoonHowler

This dude’s name is Ryan Rhodes. He’s lucky he didn’t find himself face down on the hay bale, sucking straw, with a secret service officer on either side.

He was rude. There is a protocol for speaking to the president. It is based on years of tradition and custom. The woman on Ryan’s left was just as bad. Real patriots honor our traditions.

Additionally, they were stretching the truth. Saying that someone took something hostage is not calling them a terrorist. There is too much of that illogical thinking going around these days. Vice President Biden was not the offending party. Bottom line, it was wrong. It was the equivalent of the reporter throwing the shoe at President Bush. Totally unacceptable.  This might be 15 minutes of fame he does not want.

Comedian-in-Chief

MoonHowler

The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, in recent years, has become a time for the President to become quite the comedian.

 Last night, The Empire Struck Back! President Obama was hilarious got rave reviews this morning. Poor Jay Leno. Not so much. As stated, the ‘Empire’ did strike back.

The President started off with lots of self-deprecation. I think he was every bit as good as Jon Stewart.

Update: Combined Obama routine with Jay Leno. Leno starts around minute 17. I thought Leno was just not funny.


What were your favorite lines? There were so many, it is hard to choose. I might have to listen more than once.

To Diane’s uncle, and all the other uncles out there…

MoonHowler

One of our regulars was very offended by the video from the president (see below). I am not. However, I am going to tell the story of my hair stylist’s uncle. Her name is Diane (changed for privacy reasons). Diane is a late 30-something black woman who was raised in Prince William County. She has been my hair person since she was a youngster, right out of high school.

Diane’s uncle had never voted in his life. He had never had reason to, in his mind. In 2008, as an old man in his 80’s, suffering from 2 different serious cancers, he got up, got dressed and registered to vote. He said it had never seemed important to him. He said he never thought in his life he would ever have the chance to vote for a black man for president. And vote he did. Shortly after President Obama took office, Diane’s uncle passed away, but as she told me with tears in her eyes, her uncle got to vote for a black man for president.

That’s not something I will ever be able to feel. It sure made my eyeballs sweat a little when she told me about it though. On the other hand, how often have I gotten to vote for a woman for president, and is it really the same thing? I am thinking probably not. Somehow its just a little bit different. 

Should people be offended when the president wants to make certain that certain demographics stay involved in the election process?  How about other politicians?  Isn’t that what goes on anyway?  What makes young people, Blacks, Hispanics and women worthy of being specially cited?

Maybe I am missing something. I am just not offended.

Bret Baier Totally Rude to the President

MoonHowler

Did his parents raise him wrong or does he work for a company that encourages boorish behavior?   Baier was unconscionably rude to the President of the United States.  I don’t care if you like or hate the President, no one addresses the President like that.  Why didn’t Baier just tell the President to shut up, throw a shoe at him  or call him Bub?  It would have been no more rude.

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Fox News should be ashamed and put Baier on administrative leave. Interrupting has become a part of politics and it is very much a sign of disrespect  and ill breeding. 

Is there ever an excuse for rudeness like this to any President of the United States?

UPDATE:

Cargosquid left parts 1 & 2 of the entire interview.  The video that is posted is an encapsulation.  It is important to me to give honest information.

Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWHlry2pNA

Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MUc2TAe9Og

A Stern President Obama Addresses the Nation on Terrorism

MoonHowler

Apparently President Obama met with 20 of his closest advisors and agency heads and had a real old fashioned trip to the wood shed with them. According to the Huffington Post:

President Barack Obama scolded 20 of his highest-level officials on Tuesday over the botched Christmas Day terror attack on an airliner bound for Detroit, taking them jointly to task for “a screw-up that could have been disastrous” and should have been avoided.

After that 90-minute private reckoning around a table in the super-secure White House Situation Room, a grim-faced Obama informed Americans that the government had enough information to thwart the attack ahead of time but that the intelligence community, though trained to do so, did not “connect those dots.”

 

Once again,the talking heads buzzed about what he said and what he didn’t say. Oddly enough, some old enemies gave him higher marks.

Is the president doing as much as you expect to combat terror? Is the increased security at airports going to help combat terrorism or is it ‘chasing the news?’ Will increased sky marshalls help fight terrorism? How about the closer inspection of those whose flight originates in certain countries?  Will any US officials be fired?

More importantly, how do you feel those who would do us harm see the resolve of the United States, as evidenced by our President? 

Full story in the Washington Post

Entire Obama Speech Accepting Nobel Peace Prize (Video 1-4)

MoonHowler

This speech has been called historic by people not necessarily in the Obama camp.  I believe the looked at the speech as American rather than Democratic.  So much acclaim has been given to this speech, I decided to post it in its entirety.  It is approximately 4000 words long, twice as long as his inaugural speech. 

Part 1

 

Read More

President Obama Orders 34,000 More Troops to Afghanistan

MoonHowler

President Obama has ordered approximately  34,000 more troops to Afghanistan.   In September General McCrystal requested 40,000 more in order to get the job done.  President Obama will surely have difficulty with his liberal base over sending more troops. 

The New York Times states:

Mr. Obama conveyed his decision to military leaders late Sunday afternoon during a meeting in the Oval Office and then spent Monday phoning foreign counterparts, including the leaders of Britain, France and Russia.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, declined to say how many additional troops would be deployed, but senior administration officials previously have said that about 30,000 will go in coming months, bringing the total American force to about 100,000.

 

President Obama will ask NATO nations to help fill in the additional 6,000 needed troops. While he has suffered criticism from the left, the President has also been criticized from the right for deliberating for what some see \as too long. He was accused of ‘dithering’ by some Republicans.  President Obama will address the nation tonight from the United States Military Academy at West Point at 8:00 PM.

What should happen here? Should a time line be announced? Should Obama have sent troops immediately without the many meetings with his military advisors?  Does it endanger the existing troops in Afghanistan if there are not enough boots on the ground?  Should generals always get what they ask for?  How many troops are still in Iraq?

Washington Post