by tyler | Feb 21, 2024 | CNN, opinion
Checking the weather display for our departure from JFK Airport in New York to London’s Heathrow Airport, an awkward blob of green, yellow, and red is sprawled diagonally across most of the New England coastline. Studying the computer in Operations, the routing filed with ATC (air traffic control) appears to navigate through the least intense area of a very wide storm system. I pick up the company phone, taking a rare opportunity to consult with our dispatcher located in a central location at our main hub almost 1,400 miles away.
The administration’s new coal rule could singlehandedly give the Republican nominee in 2016 a path to victory in an Electoral College that has been getting more and more difficult for the GOP.
States that have trended Democratic can flip back red.
Hello Ohio, the GOP has certainly missed your 18 Electoral College votes.
Pennsylvania (20 votes) and Michigan (16 votes) had all but turned blue, but with higher utility bills coming to voters before 2016, both are right back in play for the GOP.
Win two of those three states and the Republican wins the White House.
Virginia’s 13 electoral votes just got a lot more winnable, too.
There is a reason the President did not act so aggressively on his environmental agenda until after his re-election. It would have doomed his campaign. His political advisers responsible for his re-election would have never allowed it.
The political folks are gone now and the President does not have to think about things in a political context anymore; he gets to think about himself and the history books.
But what’s a legacy issue for Obama may not be a good thing for Hillary Clinton.
To achieve the President’s goal of a 30% emissions reduction will cost money, a lot of money. Much of the money will come from working families paying higher utility bills in an already difficult economy. Jobs will also be lost as businesses grapple with higher energy costs.
The EPA itself estimates electricity costs will increase up to 7% by 2020, critics say it will be far higher. The critics will be right on this one.
In 2014, the debate for Senate candidates will be about the prospect of higher utility bills. In 2016, the debate will be about actual higher utility bills.
It will be interesting to see the first presidential poll in Ohio after utility bills spike. If I’m a Clinton adviser, it is already giving me nightmares.
When voter’s utility bills go up, they get mad. Just ask the Labor Party in Australia. They got decimated last year for passing a carbon tax.
Just five days before Election Day in 2010, Labor party Prime Minister Julia Gillard vowed at the National Press Club, “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.”
That promise was not kept and a carbon tax went into effect in 2012.
As a result of the carbon tax, Australian utility bills went up over $500 per household a year. Public opinion turned on a dime. Gillard was removed from the 2013 ballot by her own party before a sure defeat and was replaced by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It made no difference.
Now, on behalf of his legacy and place in history, President Obama and his EPA are going to make things difficult for the left in America in 2014 and beyond.
And all Hillary Clinton can do about the EPA rule that is creating an electoral minefield for her 2016 bid is applaud.
Clinton cannot be critical of the EPA rule or she could risk alienating her base and losing a second nomination fight. The environmentalists are a powerful force in Democratic primary politics, especially on the money side.
The 2016 presidential campaign just got a lot more interesting.
Michigan and Pennsylvania, welcome back to presidential politics, you are now again swing states.
The path to 270 electoral votes for the Republican nominee just got a lot easier.
And President Obama may have just denied Hillary Clinton the White House, for a second time.
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by tyler | Feb 21, 2024 | CNN, opinion
I’m reading a terribly sad book these days. It’s a book that I thought would uplift me during the doldrums of second-year medical school, and renew in me a sense of hope. It’s called “The Audacity to Win,” and it’s a memoir of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
When I’m finished with my patient write-ups at night and get into bed, the book returns me to a time when politics inspired millions and speeches could take your breath away. The election turned out to be a landslide, and news anchors paused to reflect on the historic nature of the hour.
My classmates cried with joy, and my parents saved every newspaper they could find. A young team of visionaries was headed for the White House, and the nation was ready for change. During Obama’s transition to office in 2008, he had an 82% approval rating. There was something in the air.
And then I close the book. Cutting to the present is a rude awakening, like snapping out of a dream. It’s hard to remember those days of optimism – they seem a distant memory, a sad reminder of opportunities gone by. Change indeed happened, in the years since I cast my first ballot. It was simply nothing I could have imagined.
I credit Obama with great and varied accomplishments, from the passage of the Affordable Care Act to our military exit from Iraq, the end of “don’t ask don’t tell,” to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Moreover, I believe that partisan obstructionism has upended too many efforts to push our nation forward: immigration reform, a public option for health care, and closing the base at Guantanamo Bay, among others. But, after the countless times in which I have found myself defending the Obama administration to colleagues and peers, I’ve reached a limit to the explanations that I can provide. I’ve reached a point of political despair.
Republican obstructionism cannot explain allowing the bugging of foreign leaders, nor having drones strike innocent children overseas. It cannot explain having the National Security Agency collect data on the private lives of Americans, nor prosecuting whistle-blowers who reveal government wrongdoing. It cannot account for assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, without a trial, nor shirking public funding and spending limits during presidential campaigns.
It cannot justify the findings of a report that says the White House’s efforts to silence the media are the “most aggressive … since the Nixon Administration”.
And, most recently, it cannot excuse the failure to design a functional website more than three years since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law.
I don’t know if this is what I should have expected. If, at 18 years old, I was supposed to figure out that governance may contradict the political campaigns that precede it. Obviously, elective office isn’t a predictable course, as the opposing political party and random events, such as the Newtown massacre, will shape our public conversation. Yet, of all of the examples that I have listed above, they largely seem to be of the administration’s own choosing. That is what troubles me most of all.
I voted for Obama again in 2012, but not because I was excited by his candidacy. Mitt Romney presented a confusing and unrefined alternative who could not seem to lock down his policies or his positions. I felt that a second term for Obama, free from the pressures of future elections, would fulfill the hope that we had heard of for so long.
Still, as Obama’s approval rating sank below 45% this week, returning to 2008 through that book has become that much harder. It makes me yearn for the many promises that disappeared.
This week I was reading the portion of the book describing how Obama suffered a huge loss to Clinton in the Pennsylvania primary. At a post-mortem campaign meeting, he told his staff that they needed to get back on track and stay true to the purpose of their cause. ” ‘I want us to get our mojo back,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to remember who we are.’ ”
It’s five years later, Mr. President, and I couldn’t agree with you more.
Note: A previous version of this article referred to “the failure to design a simple website”; it’s been updated to reflect the author’s view that he should have used the term, “a functional website”.
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by tyler | Feb 21, 2024 | CNN, us
Suspended New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez has dropped a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Yankees’ team doctor and New York Presbyterian Hospital, according to court paperwork filed Thursday.
Rodriguez had alleged that the Yankees’ Dr. Christopher S. Ahmad had misdiagnosed Rodriguez’s hip injury, clearing him for play when a second doctor recommended surgery.
by tyler | Feb 21, 2024 | CNN, politics
The Obama administration has unveiled a plan to spend millions of dollars to stem the tide of undocumented children streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border, announcing a coordinated government-wide response to the situation Friday.
The plan includes almost $100 million in aid to the Central American governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help reintegrate the illegal migrants whom the United States will send back, and to help keep them in their home countries, according to a White House statement.
The administration also announced it will set aside $161.5 million this year for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) programs because the programs “are critical to enabling Central American countries to respond to the region’s most pressing security and governance challenges.”
“Our assistance will help stem migration flows as well as address the root cause of the migration,” the statement said.
The Obama administration has accused syndicates in Latin America of waging a deliberate campaign of misinformation that has caused people in poor Central American countries and Mexico to risk their lives to head for the United States, where they expect to stay.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the administration is addressing the problem in several ways.
“We’re going to open up some additional detention facilities that can accommodate adults that show up on the border with their children. And we’re going to deploy some additional resources to work through their immigration cases more quickly, so they’re not held in that detention facility for a long time, and hopefully be quickly returned to their home country,” Earnest said.
Earnest said the administration is also working with Central American countries to address the problem at its root.
“Some of that is an information campaign and countering this intentional misinformation campaign that’s being propagated by criminal syndicates. But also working through a host of USAID programs and the host governments, or the governments in these countries to try to meet some of the citizens’ security needs that are so acute in these countries right now.
Biden meets with Central American leaders
Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Guatemala on Friday for talks with Central American leaders as part of the White House strategy. A large number of the recent surge of undocumented children, 29%, are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to the government.
Biden’s objective in the meeting with leaders from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico was to emphasize that “children and adults arriving with their children (in the U.S.) are not eligible to benefit from the passage of immigration reform legislation or from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process.”
Most of the children crossing the border would not qualify for “amnesty” under the federal DACA program that defers deportation for children brought to the United States previously by their parents or guardians illegally.
Biden spoke with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez during his flight to Guatemala. He asked Hernandez to work closely with the other leaders to help develop a plan to address the root causes of unlawful migration from Central America, according to a statement from the office of the vice president.
The vice president discussed the same topics in a meeting in Guatemala later with Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador, and representatives from the Honduran and Mexican governments.
Obama administration unveils new response
Biden’s visit to Central America was part of the Obama administration’s response to what it calls an “urgent humanitarian situation.”
U.S. authorities estimate that between 60,000 and 80,000 children without parents will cross the border this year alone.
The majority of the children apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol along the southwest border this month have been concentrated in the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, according to a congressional advisory Friday.
As of June 18, 3,103 unaccompanied children from 11 countries were in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody along that border, the majority being from Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala, the advisory said.
The federal government does not have the processing capabilities to handle this kind of influx of illegal human traffic. But the Obama administration has now coordinated a governmentwide response to the crisis.
The new plan announced Friday includes a big influx of spending to the USAID program, including $40 million dollars to Guatemala to improve security, $25 million to El Salvador to help with a crime and violence prevention program and at-risk youth, and $18.5 million to the Central American Regional Security Initiative in Honduras for crime and gang prevention efforts.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are also taking additional steps to try and mitigate the still unfolding immigration crisis.
The agencies are “surging government enforcement resources to increase (the) capacity to detain individuals and adults who bring their children with them and to handle immigration court hearings as quickly and efficiently as possible while also while protecting those who are seeking asylum.”
“This is an extraordinary interagency effort to deal with an urgent humanitarian situation,” said Cecilia Muñoz, the White House director of domestic policy, in a conference call on the new administration plan.
Opponents of the Obama administration remain skeptical of the immigration policies leading to the boarder crossings of minors.
On Friday, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin toured a temporary shelter at Fort Sill housing about 600 unaccompanied minors – ages 12 to 17 – who crossed the United States’ southern border illegally.
Fallin criticized President Barack Obama for the “lax immigration policies that have lead to an illegal immigration crisis.”
“This facility is designed for our soldiers to train and prepare to protect our nation,” said Fallin. “Instead, the federal government is using it as a cross between a boarding school and detention center for illegal immigrants. President Obama should not be using our military facilities as a tool to cover up his failed immigration policies.”
The Obama administration aims to close the Fort Sill housing facility for undocumented children in the next 120 days.
Crossroads of hope and fear: Stories from a desert bus station
Texas touts ‘surge’ at Mexican border to confront illegal immigration
by tyler | Feb 14, 2024 | CNN, world
Here’s a look at WikiLeaks and the trial of Chelsea Manning.
WikiLeaks is purportedly an organization that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information through its website.
It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, activist, computer programmer and hacker.
Chelsea Manning (born Bradley Manning), a former Army intelligence analyst who provided WikiLeaks with classified documents, was convicted of violating the Espionage Act in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her sentence was later commuted by President Barack Obama.
December 2007 – WikiLeaks posts the US Army manual for soldiers dealing with prisoners at Camp Delta, Guantánamo Bay.
March 2008 – WikiLeaks posts internal documents from the Church of Scientology.
September 2008 – WikiLeaks posts emails from the Yahoo email account of Sarah Palin.
November 2008 – WikiLeaks posts a list of names and addresses of people it claims belong to the far-right British National Party.
November 2009 – WikiLeaks posts what it claims are 500,000 messages sent during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
April 5, 2010 – A classified military video is posted by WikiLeaks. It shows a US Apache helicopter firing on and killing two journalists and a number of Iraqi civilians in 2007. The military claimed that the helicopter crew believed the targets were armed insurgents, not civilians.
May 2010 – The US military detains Manning for allegedly leaking US combat video, including the US helicopter gunship attack posted on WikiLeaks, and classified State Department records. Manning was turned in by Adrian Lamo, a former hacker, who Manning confided in about leaking the classified records.
July 6, 2010 – The military announces it has charged Manning with violating army regulations by transferring classified information to a personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system and of violating federal laws of governing the handling of classified information.
July 25, 2010 – WikiLeaks posts more than 90,000 classified documents relating to the Afghanistan war in what has been called the biggest leak since the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. The documents are divided into more than 100 categories and touch on everything from the hunt for Osama bin Laden to Afghan civilian deaths resulting from US military actions.
October 22, 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes nearly 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War, providing a new picture of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, the role that Iran has played in supporting Iraqi militants and many accounts of abuse by Iraq’s army and police.
November 28, 2010 – WikiLeaks begins publishing approximately 250,000 leaked State Department cables dating back to 1966. The site says the documents will be released “in stages over the next few months.”
November 28, 2010 – The WikiLeaks website suffers an attack designed to make it unavailable to users. A Twitter user called Jester claims responsibility for the attack.
December 1, 2010 – Amazon removes WikiLeaks from its servers.
April 24, 2011 – Nearly 800 classified US military documents obtained by WikiLeaks reveal details about the alleged terrorist activities of al Qaeda operatives captured and housed in Guantánamo Bay.
September 2, 2011 – WikiLeaks releases its archive of more than 250,000 unredacted US diplomatic cables.
October 24, 2011 – WikiLeaks announces that it is temporarily halting publication to “aggressively fundraise.” Assange states that a financial blockade by Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union has cut off 95% of WikiLeaks’ revenue.
December 16, 2011 – Manning’s Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing that will determine whether enough evidence exists to merit a court-martial, begins.
February 23, 2012 – Manning is formally charged with aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defense information and theft of public property or records.
February 26, 2012 – WikiLeaks begins releasing what it says are five million emails from the private intelligence company, Stratfor, starting with a company “glossary” that features unflattering descriptions of US government agencies. The authenticity of the documents can’t be independently confirmed.
July 5, 2012 – WikiLeaks begins publishing more than 2.4 million emails from Syrian politicians, government ministries and companies dating back to 2006.
February 28, 2013 – Manning pleads guilty to some of the 22 charges against him, but not the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence.
June 3, 2013 – Manning’s court-martial begins.
July 30, 2013 – Manning is acquitted of aiding the enemy, but found guilty on 20 other counts, including violations of the Espionage Act.
August 21, 2013 – A military judge sentences Manning to 35 years in prison.
August 22, 2013 – Through a statement read on NBC’s Today show, Manning announces he wants to live life as a woman and wants to be known by his new name, Chelsea Manning. She later formally changes her name.
July 22, 2016 – WikiLeaks releases nearly 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee staffers. The emails appear to show the committee favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the US presidential primary.
October 7, 2016 – More than 2,000 hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta are published by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks claims that it has more than 50,000 of Podesta’s emails and pledges to continue releasing batches of documents during the weeks leading up to the election.
January 3, 2017 – During an interview on the Fox News Network, Assange says that Russia did not give WikiLeaks hacked emails.
January 12, 2017 – WikiLeaks tweets that Assange will agree to be extradited to the United States if Obama grants clemency to Manning.
January 17, 2017 – Obama commutes Manning’s sentence, setting the stage for her to be released on May 17.
March 7, 2017 – WikiLeaks publishes what they say are thousands of internal CIA documents, including alleged discussions of a covert hacking program and the development of spy software targeting cellphones, smart TVs and computer systems in cars. In a statement, Assange says that the website published the documents as a warning about the risk of the proliferation of “cyber weapons.” In 2024, Joshua Schulte, a former CIA employee, is sentenced to 40 years in prison for leaking the documents.
April 20, 2017 – Authorities tell CNN that they are taking steps to seek the arrest of Assange, preparing criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder. The investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates back to 2010 but prosecutors struggled with the question of whether the First Amendment protected Assange. Now, they reportedly have found a way to proceed but offered no details on the nature of the charges they plan to file.
May 3, 2017 – During a Senate hearing, FBI Director James Comey refers to WikiLeaks as “intelligence porn,” declaring that the site’s disclosures are intended to damage the United States rather than educate the public.
May 17, 2017 – Manning is released from prison.
September 15, 2017 – Harvard Kennedy School withdraws an invitation to Manning to be a visiting fellow.
October 2017- CNN reports that in 2016 a Cambridge Analytica executive reached out to WikiLeaks requesting access to Clinton emails. Assange confirmed the exchange in a tweet, saying “I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks.”
May 31, 2018 – The US Army Court of Criminal Appeals upholds Manning’s 2013 court-martial conviction. Although Manning’s sentence was commuted, her conviction under the Espionage Act, still stands.
September 26, 2018 – WikiLeaks appoints Kristinn Hrafnsson as its new editor-in-chief, replacing Assange, who has been unable to communicate for months while taking refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange will stay on as publisher.
March 5, 2019 – A federal judge denies Manning’s effort to quash a subpoena and avoid testifying before a grand jury in Virginia. It is not publicly known what the grand jury in Virginia is investigating and what prosecutors’ interest in Manning is.
March 8-May 9, 2019 – Manning spends 62 days in federal custody for refusing to testify about her disclosures to WikiLeaks. A group of Manning supporters called Chelsea Resists issues a statement claiming Manning is being kept in her cell for 22 hours a day, which they say constitutes solitary confinement and surmounts to “torture.”
April 11, 2019 – Assange is arrested by the Metropolitan Police in London on an extradition warrant from the US Justice Department. He is charged with conspiracy to attempt to hack a computer in connection with the 2010 release of classified military info obtained via Manning. Assange’s attorney says the indictment is troubling because of its implications for freedom of the press.
May 16, 2019 – Manning is again found in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury and returns to jail.
March 11, 2020 – Manning is hospitalized after attempting suicide. The next day, Federal District Court judge Anthony Trenga orders Manning to be released from jail after being held for 10 months.
January 4, 2021 – A British judge rejects a US request to extradite Assange, but the decision is overturned in December. On March 14, 2022, the UK Supreme Court denies Assange’s appeal against the extradition decision. A formal extradition order is issued on April 20. On June 17, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel signs off on the order.
October 18, 2022 – Manning’s book “README.txt: A Memoir” is published.
by tyler | Feb 14, 2024 | CNN, us
Here’s a look at the life of Joseph Lieberman, former United States senator from Connecticut.
Birth date: February 24, 1942
Birth place: Stamford, Connecticut
Birth name: Joseph Isadore Lieberman
Father: Henry Lieberman, package-store owner
Mother: Marcia (Manger) Lieberman
Marriages: Hadassah (Freilich) Lieberman (1983-present); Elizabeth Haas (1965-1981, divorced)
Children: with Hadassah Lieberman: Hani and Ethan (stepson); with Betty Haas: Rebecca and Matthew
Education: Yale University, B.A., 1964, Yale Law School, L.L.B, 1967
Religion: Jewish
Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential campaign. He is the first Jewish person to be nominated by a major party.
When Lieberman ran for state senate in 1970, one of the volunteers who worked on his campaign was future President Bill Clinton.
At Yale, his nickname was “Senator.”
He has said that he took time off from college in 1963 to spend a few weeks in Mississippi doing civil rights work.
1967-1969 – Works with the private law firm Wiggin and Dana.
1968 – Runs the Connecticut presidential campaign of Democrat Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 – Is elected to the Connecticut Senate, representing New Haven.
1972-1983 – Partner in the law firm Lieberman, Segaloff and Wolfson.
1975-1981 – Majority leader of the Connecticut Senate.
1980 – Runs unsuccessfully for a seat in Congress.
1983-1988 – Attorney general of Connecticut.
November 8, 1988 – Becomes the first Orthodox Jew to be elected to the US Senate.
1989-2013 – US senator from Connecticut.
1995-2001 – Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.
August 8, 2000 – Vice President Gore selects Lieberman as his running mate in the presidential race.
January 7, 2003 – Publishes the book, “An Amazing Adventure: Joe and Hadassah’s Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaign,” along with his wife Hadassah Lieberman.
January 13, 2003 – Declares he will run for president in the 2004 election.
February 3, 2004 – Drops out of the race for president.
August 8, 2006 – Is defeated in Connecticut’s Democratic Senate primary by Ned Lamont. Lieberman then announces he will run in the election as an Independent.
November 7, 2006 – Wins reelection as an Independent.
December 17, 2007 – Endorses Republican Senator John McCain during the primary campaign for the presidential nomination. The endorsement stirs up controversy and after the election, the Senate Democratic Caucus strips him of his spot on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Lieberman is allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
January 19, 2011 – Announces that he will not run for reelection.
January 2013 – Retires from the Senate.
June 6, 2013 – Joins the law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP.
January 2, 2014 – Announces he will serve as executive board chairman of Victory Park Capital, a private equity firm.
January 12, 2015 – After the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, Lieberman writes an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal and states that a global alliance is necessary to combat terrorists.
August 10, 2015 – United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group that campaigns for sanctions against Iran, announces that Lieberman is its new chairman.
May 17, 2017 – White House Spokesman Sean Spicer says that Lieberman is a candidate to replace James Comey as director of the FBI.
May 25, 2017 – Withdraws his name from consideration for the position of FBI director.
September 9, 2019 – In an opinion piece for USA Today, Lieberman, representing UANI, writes that the 2020 democratic presidential candidates should support Trump’s Iran policy and not pledge to rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement.
October 19, 2021 – Lieberman’s book, The Centrist Solution: How We Made Government Work and Can Make It Work Again, is published.
December 4, 2023 – Yeshiva University announces the establishment of the Senator Joseph Lieberman Center for Public Service and Advocacy.
