The calls are led by its top staffer, Tara McGuinness, who will also head Progressive Media’s “communications research and analysis war room” to wage spin and policy wars throughout the day, Palmieri said.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Grading Obama...The Tribe Is Speaking!
There's an interesting online poll out, offering readers a chance to grade Obama's performance so far. With 259,205 votes in so far , here's how the Chosen One stacks up...I'd give him an A: 80,609 votes or 31.1%
I'd give him a B: 23,741 votes, 9.2%
I'd give him a C: 18,416 votes , 7.1%
I'd give him a D: 41,099 votes, 15.9%
I'd give him an F: 95,340 votes or 36.8%!
Notice that the D and F votes add up to 52.7%. It's so sad to see a love affair start to go down the tubes...not.
And the kicker? This is an MSNBC poll!!
By the way, feel free to click on the link and give Obama the grade he deserves. The Lefty blogs are already panicking and urging their sordid minions onward to preserve the One's inflated rep.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The New Vast Left Wing Conspiracy
Yes, it definitely exists....:The vast new left-wing conspiracy sets its tone every morning at 8:45 a.m., when officials from more than 20 labor, environmental and other Democratic-leaning groups dial into a private conference call hosted by two left-leaning Washington organizations.
The “8:45 A.M. call,” as it’s referred to by members, began three weeks ago, and it marks a new level in coordination by the White House’s allies at a time when the conservative opposition is struggling for a toe-hold and major agenda items like health care reform appear closer than ever to passage.
The call has helped attempts to link the Republican Party to radio host Rush Limbaugh, and has served as the launching ground for attacks on critics of Obama’s policy proposals. It springs from a recognition of what was lacking in the Clinton years, said Jennifer Palmieri, the senior vice president for communications at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, one of the groups hosting the call.
“[CAP President John] Podesta’s and my experience was in the White House during the Clinton years, and we didn’t have a coordinated echo chamber on the outside backing us up,” she said. “There’s a real interest on the progressive side for groups to want to coordinate with each other and leverage each other’s work in a way I haven’t ever seen before.”
The call is hosted by Progressive Media, a project of the CAP Action Fund and the Media Matters Action Fund. The project began last year as a launching pad for attacks on John McCain, but failed to raise money for television advertisements, and served in the later days of the presidential campaign as a platform for disseminating opposition research critical of his policy plans. White House officials do not take part in the calls.
And if you believe that last sentence, I've got a bridge to sell you.
These efforts are likely funded by George Soros and his pal Peter Lewis. Here's an example of how they work the White House enemies list:
The call has proved particularly effective at coordinating attacks on critics, said Jackie Schechner, the national communications director for Health Care for America Now, a labor-backed alliance of groups that support Democratic efforts to expand health care.
“There’s a coordination in terms of exposing the people who are trying to come out against reform —they’ve all got backgrounds and histories and pasts, and it’s not taking long to unearth that and to unleash that, because we’re all working together,” Schechner said.
When a new group called Conservative for Patients Rights, for instance, launched an ad campaign featuring former health care executive Rick Scott, “There was a discussion about what do we know about this guy and in a very quick period of time we were able to come up with his background,” she said.
When Betsy McCaughey, best known for her attacks on Clinton’s 1993 health care plan, published a column criticizing Obama, groups on the call coordinated attacks on her recalling questions about her 1993 article and noting her seat on the board of a medical device maker, in which she also owned stock.
The results of the new coordination are perhaps most obvious in the ongoing effort to saddle the Republican Party and its allies with radio host Rush Limbaugh’s hope that Obama “fails.” The Center for American Progress’s blog seized on Limbaugh’s “fail” comment early, as did congressional Democrats, and participants in the call drove it well beyond its obvious political range.
Media Matters, for instance, launched a “Limbaugh Wire” http://mediamatters.org/limbaughwire/; and even the League of Conservation Voters Tuesday released a video in which Limbaugh’s attacks on conservation and global warming theory are played over the talking heads of Republican leaders.
Though White House officials do not participate in the calls, Palmieri said, the new infrastructure is closely tied to the White House. Podesta directed Obama’s transition, and Americans United for Change exists largely to run ads promoting the White House agenda.
Just like Joe the Plumber or Sarah Palin. Deviate from Leftist orthodoxy or criticize Obama and your life, your privacy, your family and your livlyhood will come under attack. They will burn you at the stake.
And to think..these are the people who use 'McCarthyism' as a swear word!
Think of this as one more wakeup call.
The answer is to ignore 'bi-partisanship' except when it matches conservative priciples, bridge the gaps and organize, exactly as these genuinely misguided ideologues have done.
It's been thirty years since the Carter Administration and people have forgotten what really inept government feels like. They're in the process of learning that lesson again, and our responsibility is to provide a pathway out of it. Like Rahm Emanuel said, never waste a crisis.
And afterwards, hold our own to the same strict standard.
We have a country to save.Slo-Joe Biden Weighs In On Afghanistan
Vice President Biden has joined the parade of Obamanistas calling the war in Afghanistan a losing proposition:U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged NATO members Tuesday to jointly confront al-Qaida and other extremist groups in Afghanistan where he said instability threatens all of the alliance's members equally.
Biden told the allies the United States was open to talks with Taliban moderates as part of a new approach, echoing comments made by President Barack Obama over the weekend.
"It is worth engaging and determining whether or not there are those who are willing to participate in a secure and stable Afghan state," Biden said.
Biden solicited ideas from European allies during a one-day round of talks at NATO and EU headquarters on amending a troubled military strategy in Afghanistan and bringing more allies on board to fight the Taliban-led insurgency.
Biden told NATO's top decision-making body that the situation in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan was worsening, adding, "The deteriorating situation in the region poses a security threat from our respect not just to the United States, but to every single nation around this table."
"It was from that remote area of the world that al-Qaida plotted 9/11 and subsequent attacks" in Europe and elsewhere.
I especially liked the EU's answer to Slo-Joe's pronouncement that the US would consider a terrorist attack on its NATO buddies as an attack on America.
Their response? They agreed to provide more police trainers, judges and other judicial experts to Afghanistan! Yeah, lawyers...they can sue the Taliban and Lakshmi al Taiba to death!
OK, sarcasm aside, Slo-Joe has it right in the broad sense - Pakistan and Afghanistan are part of the same problem. But talking with the 'moderate' Taliban? To the extent they exist, they're not same guys who are waging war against our troops and sheltering al-Qaeda. And when you have both whatever remains of the Pakistani government caving in to them left and right and both Obama and Biden saying that we're losing the war and things are deteriorating, just why would they have anything to gain from 'talks' unless it gave them exactly what they wanted - us out of Afghanistan and a free hand to take over again? And why would any of the Taliban feel obligated to keep any deal made with ferenghis and infidels?
Slo-Joe is like his master...not real swift on the uptake when it comes to foreign policy. And I would question the wisdom of publicly yakking about how bad things are while our troops are still in the field. Aside from encouraging our enemies to even greater efforts and more intransigence, it has a certain effect on any Afghans thinking of betting on our side.You would think you could expect a bit more from a commander in chief and his vice president, even if they are Democrats.
For that matter, the Obama Administration made another little noticed signal that we may be pulling out of Afghanistan sooner than later ( h/tBookworm).
The linked article mentions that we're pulling 17,000 U.S. troops out of Iraq and sending them to Afghanistan...except it looks like maybe that was just more Obama razzle dazzle for the media.
As milblogger Greyhawk notes, it looks like we're not actually pulling any troops out of Iraq at all..and there's no certainty that we're actually sending more boots on the ground to Afghanistan.
My guess is that Obama is looking for a graceful way out.Another Obama Nominee Bites The Dust
Charles 'Chas' Freeman was the Obama Administration's pick to head the National Intelligence Council, a key position because the head of the NIC directly prepares the intelligence summaries for the president.
Freeman was a particularly foul choice.
Freeman has no intelligence experience whatsoever,joining Leon Pannetta, the political fixer and bagman now in charge of our CIA.
He's also an ex-diplomat who's a recipient of the Saudi government pension augmentation plan I mentioned before, and as you would imagine, he's extremely anti-Israel.
Freeman is on record as saying that the main reason for Islamic terrorism directed at America is our support for Israel, who he likewise blames entirely for the situation in the Middle East.Freeman has said that the US should deal directly and support genocidal groups like Hamas and Hezbollah as "part of the world order the United States wants to see," and as you might imagine, he's part of a growing pro-Iran lobby in Washington DC.
He also has significant connections with the Chinese government, saying that China did not move fast enough in crushing dissidents in Tien An Min Square and characterized a revolt by Tibetans against the Chinese occupation of their country as a 'race riot.' Coincidentally, he sat on the board of a Chinese state oil company at the time and for all I know still does.
This was the sort of creature the Obama Administration wanted to put in a high security position overseeing the nation's intelligence reports.
With the exception of Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal, hardly any of the dinosaur media could be bothered with reporting on this story...but eventually the stench got too bad for even Congress to avoid dealing with this, and Freeman obviously withdrew his name rather than generate additional publicity on the Obama Administration's failure to vet this man.Admiral Dennis Blair, the man who officially submitted his name was given the task of falling on his sword and taking the blame.
Hot Air has some more details on why Freeman was made to pull out.
It says something for the essential, innate decency of America that even with a relatively anti-Israel Democrat administration in the White House and given all the money the House of Saud is able to spread around, this one didn't slip through the cracks.
It also says something about the basic nature of the Obama Administration that they would attempt to shove this one through. Unbelievable.
hat tip Carl in Jerusalem and Hot Air
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Hooo boy.
You can't make this stuff up.
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