President Barack Obama and President-elect Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine talk after statements to the press following their bilateral meeting at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, June 4, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Hey there, CaroleMaeWY! First!!!! I am grateful to see this reminder that Meanwhile, Back in the Real World of integrity, dedication, diplomacy, and doing the work we chose him to do, President Obama is over in a faraway land, working as Commander in Chief and America’s great, good and mighty leader, taking care of the business at the helm of the Ship of State.
.@MichelleObama started a pollinator garden at the White House. Tell her that bees need her help even more http://t.co/SqR54P8YtQ @foe_us
— lisa witham (@cheezwitham) June 4, 2025
This sounds like a very worthy cause, but I suppressing an urge to smile/laugh at they way they frame the request. Meanwhile, I wonder if after Jan 2017 we will continue to see these groups asking that either the President or First Spouse do whatever pet cause said group wants done…
Tweety has completely lost it, going nuts on this Bergdahl deal—-his face got beet red—-I thought he might have a stroke. What in the world??? Clarence Page had to remind him about the diff between Taliban and al Qaeda. As impressed as he is with himself, I don’t think Tweety has any depth of understanding on most issues——just goes with the blowing of the wind, just puts on a performance, no inner core.
If I’m understanding this correctly, reports are that the 5 Taliban prisoners swapped for Bergdahl were told that they would be watched closely. If they show up on the grid, they wont be recaptured. They will be killed.
Um, does that sound like anybody caving to the Taliban?
I think it is truly irrelevant whether the swapped prisoners are watched, jailed or let run free - POWs have been swapped since time to infinity - has a nation ever gone crazy stupid about it before - I think not. I have friends whose father’s came back - almost in pieces from WWII prison camps. They worked for their captors - no doubt they talked to their captors - some were probably deserters - no-one mentioned it - they were welcomed home with ticker tape parades.
This has nothing to do with swapping prisoners - this has to do with RW hate. There has not been a week in the past year when the US media hasn’t been screaming at what the president has done. They are frauds, ugly, hopeless and deserve anything that is eventually thrown at them. They lie, they listen to liars and they give liars a platform.
When Barack Obama is no longer President, some will discover how much they needed him to keep our world a safe place. Mark it down 2017 will see the building up of defense again and more poor souls like Bergdahl will be conned into believing their country cares.
Just catching up and reading zizi’s post. Boy, did we hit the trifecta today. Three great posts, all hitting the nail on the head.
It is almost sad to see a visceral hatred turn thinking human beings into a pack of feral dogs, yet that is what has happened with the GOP and RW. I say almost sad simply because this pack of feral dogs is still dangerous and is much better at the propaganda machine than the Dems are.
I was planning to post this not the bee reply which I thought already posted by that topic. Anyway, I was a registered Republican before PBO started campaigning. I changed my registration to the Democratic Party to work to get him elected. After the antics and opposition I have seen from the GOP since PBO took office I never plan to ever vote again for any Republican candidate. I cannot help but think there must be others like me. So even though I am saddened at how the GOP have treated our First Family I am proud they have stood up to the criticism and keep on helping us. I know the GOP have presented their side poorly and PBO has exposed them so sane people can see how depraved they are.
I was back over reading all the comments on the last post, fixing to commend ZiZi for a superb, comprehensive, passionate and brilliant post, when I noticed that TOD had sailed into the next post. Let me say, Zizi, that your analysis and expression were solid gold, powerful, and righteous. Thank you, and thankful for you.
Is the Prisoner Swap Hysteria a sign of GOP War withdrawal Symptoms?
By Juan Cole
———————————
The problem for the happy warriors among the conservatives is that they can’t stop Obama from winding down America’s decade of war. They continually carp that Obama should have kept troops in Iraq past 2011, while carefully avoiding any admission that it was George W. Bush who failed to achieve a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi parliament, which was unlikely to grant one to Obama, either. Without a UN authorization, and without a SOFA, US forces fighting in Iraq would have been open to prosecution both abroad and in Iraq.
.
.
The GOP has to get over it. We won’t be at war much longer. And if their platform is again in 2016, as it was in 2012, that the US should have retained a division each in Iraq and Afghanistan and should intervene militarily in Syria and other conflicts as well, I think they will find that the public is just as unenthusiastic about that platform two and a half years from now as it was a year and a half ago.
yes, yes, and yes. Lovely to see Juan Cole agreeing with me :-) The Republicans have no reason for existence without war, and these people see giant profits leaving them without a perpetual war. Peace dividend? They don’t want one, and wouldn’t want to use it for peaceful, social purposes.
I just saw a Tweet saying that the former SoS Clinton opposed the OBL raid. That is a 1001% lie. Gates, Penatta and Clinton were supporters of the raid.
They actually did not support it in the beginning, according to the 2012 Rolling Stones piece everyone keeps referring to:
Some top-level officials within the administration, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are very wary about making a swap for Bowe. “Panetta and Hillary don’t give a shit about getting him home,” says one senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations. “They want to be able to say they COINed their way out of Afghanistan, or whatever, so it doesn’t look like they are cutting and running.” (Both Clinton and Panetta, by law, would have to sign off on any exchange.)
President Obama took a calculated risk and demonstrated great COURAGE in his decision about the OBL raid. He risked his presidency for this.
That he’s considered WEAK in some quarters is one of the most outrageous things I’ve seen during his presidency. He’s everything but weak !! Too bad that a political culture obsessed with authoritarianism and bravado is unable to see how STRONG this President is.
I will be able to live with a Hillary Clinton presidency simply because it will prevent a bunch of corrupt and stupid republicans from controlling the executive branch.
But let’s realize, folks, that we have now in President Obama one of the most HONORABLE, UNSELFISH, CARING, COURAGEOUS president America has EVER HAD.
He NEVER, EVER puts politics before his duty , before his responsibilities towards his country and its citizens. He ALWAYS tries to do the right thing, EVEN WHEN IT’S HARD. This is a RARE quality among american politicians, I’m sorry to say.
We’ve discussed over the years why President Obama isn’t popular among the Beltway crowd. Simple: they KNOW he’s not one of them. He doesn’t trade favors, he never puts politics first, he refuses to play their games. A man of INTEGRITY in the midst of a corrupt political culture.
One reason why it is important for the U.S. to bring their POW soldiers home, is that it speak to the soldiers on the field now, and it let them know that if they are caught the U.S. will never give up till they are brought back home,regardless.
Even as calls grew in Congress for Shinseki, 71, to step down, and details emerged of an effort to misreport scheduling delays for patient appointments, many in the uniformed military had remained decidedly in Shinseki’s camp, convinced that an American hero maimed in Vietnam and humiliated for publicly questioning Iraq policy during the Bush administration was being made a scapegoat….
….But to some of those who served alongside him in uniform, Friday’s announcement marked the fourth time in Shinseki’s career that he has been wounded in the service of his country. This time, it was because he did the same things that had made him such a successful Army commander he trusted those around him, reacted calmly to crisis, and when learning of a problem tried to address it through channels…..In Vietnam, Shinseki sustained shrapnel wounds in the shoulder and chest, returned to combat, then lost part of his right foot when a landmine exploded. His grace in dealing with his wounds resonated with the last generation of soldiers……
He rose swiftly through the ranks to command the 7th Army and U.S. forces in Central Europe. As chief of staff of the Army, he created the Stryker brigades, assembled around agile new vehicles designed for urban warfare. In Iraq, especially, they became critical forces. But it was his comments in the 2003 run-up to the Iraq War that, to some soldiers, made him a national hero and symbol thoughtful resistance to the growing warpath. Calling on his experience as a commander of peacekeeping troops in Bosnia, Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers” would likely be required for postwar Iraq, not the few thousand that the Bush administration had predicted…..
For Many In Military http://t.co/WxJczAWL5b General Shinseki Remains A Hero http://t.co/1i7M56qXJL via @nancyayoussef pic.twitter.com/dTtmdKjQQ2
japa21, this is proof right there that the Republicans and Feinstein would not have kept it a secret if the WH told them about what they were about to do.
Retired Gen. Stanley McCrystal on Wednesday said it was too soon to “judge” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and the Obama administration’s decision to negotiate for his release from the Taliban.
“I think we’re going to have to wait and talk to Sgt. Bergdahl now and get his side of the story,” McCrystal told Yahoo News about the soldier, who has been characterized as a deserter by some of his platoon members. “One of the great things about America is we should not judge until we know the facts. And after we know the facts, then we should make a mature judgment on how we should handle it.”
The retired general defended efforts to return Bergdahl after he left his post in Afghanistan.
“We did a huge number of operations to try to stop the Taliban from being able to move him across the border into Pakistan,” McChrystal said. “And we made a great effort, and put a lot of people at risk in doing that, but that’s what you should do. That’s what soldiers do for each other.”
What I worry about is the textbook companies writing history from the Republican viewpoint. Most of those companies are in Texas and share the GOP viewpoint as big business. Just saw that the Chinese younger generation do not seem to know about Tienamin (sp?) Square. Their government worked hard at deleting that info as will the Republicans with their actions during Obama’s Presidency.
I have some good news!! For the first time in years I was at the markets at 9am - wow - talk about service - there was me and a couple of young Moms and that was it. I should do this more often :)
He said, “This is no different than if the President visited a restaurant off the record and other diners took pictures of him.” So, in other words, no one was strictly prevented from being in the vicinity or taking pictures of the president, he claims.
////
So this is OK by the SService? I feel better? OK….just a tad.
White House.gov
Howdy! :)
CMWY for the win!
Thank you LL! <3
I love that song :) Now I’m envious of CarolMae for coming in first and securing such a prestigious award!
Hey there, CaroleMaeWY! First!!!! I am grateful to see this reminder that Meanwhile, Back in the Real World of integrity, dedication, diplomacy, and doing the work we chose him to do, President Obama is over in a faraway land, working as Commander in Chief and America’s great, good and mighty leader, taking care of the business at the helm of the Ship of State.
^^^^^^
THIS.
Thank you Nancie.
second!
Oh LAWD…now “Friends of the Earth” is asking us to tell FLOTUS to stand up for the bees… //smh
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15479
This sounds like a very worthy cause, but I suppressing an urge to smile/laugh at they way they frame the request. Meanwhile, I wonder if after Jan 2017 we will continue to see these groups asking that either the President or First Spouse do whatever pet cause said group wants done…
Well you just might see Bill Clinton (God forbid) standing up for bees LOL
aahhh… no
Exactly!
Hello TOD ;)
Rafael Parera Nadal was the Victor over Ferrer
4-6, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1
Rafa is now on his way to Semi-finals.
Vamos!
Perfect photo for today,LL.
Tweety has completely lost it, going nuts on this Bergdahl deal—-his face got beet red—-I thought he might have a stroke. What in the world??? Clarence Page had to remind him about the diff between Taliban and al Qaeda. As impressed as he is with himself, I don’t think Tweety has any depth of understanding on most issues——just goes with the blowing of the wind, just puts on a performance, no inner core.
And now he has on Marsha Blackburn—what?—why?—-as if anyone in the world needed to hear her deep thoughts.
She has some?……………
“I thought he might have a stroke”
One can but hope
Tweety is always loud and wrong.
Very well said.
Wednesday’s Close:
Dow+15.19
16,737.53 +0.09%
Nasdaq+17.56
4,251.64 +0.41%
S&P+3.64
1,927.88 +0.19%
If I’m understanding this correctly, reports are that the 5 Taliban prisoners swapped for Bergdahl were told that they would be watched closely. If they show up on the grid, they wont be recaptured. They will be killed.
Um, does that sound like anybody caving to the Taliban?
Hi meta
I think it is truly irrelevant whether the swapped prisoners are watched, jailed or let run free - POWs have been swapped since time to infinity - has a nation ever gone crazy stupid about it before - I think not. I have friends whose father’s came back - almost in pieces from WWII prison camps. They worked for their captors - no doubt they talked to their captors - some were probably deserters - no-one mentioned it - they were welcomed home with ticker tape parades.
This has nothing to do with swapping prisoners - this has to do with RW hate. There has not been a week in the past year when the US media hasn’t been screaming at what the president has done. They are frauds, ugly, hopeless and deserve anything that is eventually thrown at them. They lie, they listen to liars and they give liars a platform.
When Barack Obama is no longer President, some will discover how much they needed him to keep our world a safe place. Mark it down 2017 will see the building up of defense again and more poor souls like Bergdahl will be conned into believing their country cares.
Just catching up and reading zizi’s post. Boy, did we hit the trifecta today. Three great posts, all hitting the nail on the head.
It is almost sad to see a visceral hatred turn thinking human beings into a pack of feral dogs, yet that is what has happened with the GOP and RW. I say almost sad simply because this pack of feral dogs is still dangerous and is much better at the propaganda machine than the Dems are.
PBO uses beer made from the WH honey as gifts to others. MO not only has pollinator bees at work, but makes sure they use the honey made!
I was planning to post this not the bee reply which I thought already posted by that topic. Anyway, I was a registered Republican before PBO started campaigning. I changed my registration to the Democratic Party to work to get him elected. After the antics and opposition I have seen from the GOP since PBO took office I never plan to ever vote again for any Republican candidate. I cannot help but think there must be others like me. So even though I am saddened at how the GOP have treated our First Family I am proud they have stood up to the criticism and keep on helping us. I know the GOP have presented their side poorly and PBO has exposed them so sane people can see how depraved they are.
I was back over reading all the comments on the last post, fixing to commend ZiZi for a superb, comprehensive, passionate and brilliant post, when I noticed that TOD had sailed into the next post. Let me say, Zizi, that your analysis and expression were solid gold, powerful, and righteous. Thank you, and thankful for you.
Is the Prisoner Swap Hysteria a sign of GOP War withdrawal Symptoms?
By Juan Cole
———————————
The problem for the happy warriors among the conservatives is that they can’t stop Obama from winding down America’s decade of war. They continually carp that Obama should have kept troops in Iraq past 2011, while carefully avoiding any admission that it was George W. Bush who failed to achieve a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi parliament, which was unlikely to grant one to Obama, either. Without a UN authorization, and without a SOFA, US forces fighting in Iraq would have been open to prosecution both abroad and in Iraq.
.
.
The GOP has to get over it. We won’t be at war much longer. And if their platform is again in 2016, as it was in 2012, that the US should have retained a division each in Iraq and Afghanistan and should intervene militarily in Syria and other conflicts as well, I think they will find that the public is just as unenthusiastic about that platform two and a half years from now as it was a year and a half ago.
———————————————-
http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/hysteria-withdrawal-symptoms.html
yes, yes, and yes. Lovely to see Juan Cole agreeing with me :-) The Republicans have no reason for existence without war, and these people see giant profits leaving them without a perpetual war. Peace dividend? They don’t want one, and wouldn’t want to use it for peaceful, social purposes.
I just saw a Tweet saying that the former SoS Clinton opposed the OBL raid. That is a 1001% lie. Gates, Penatta and Clinton were supporters of the raid.
They actually did not support it in the beginning, according to the 2012 Rolling Stones piece everyone keeps referring to:
Some top-level officials within the administration, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are very wary about making a swap for Bowe. “Panetta and Hillary don’t give a shit about getting him home,” says one senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations. “They want to be able to say they COINed their way out of Afghanistan, or whatever, so it doesn’t look like they are cutting and running.” (Both Clinton and Panetta, by law, would have to sign off on any exchange.)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607?print=true
Hmm? I am not talking about the Bowe Bergdahl release.
OBL is what the tweet was about.
Actually it is true that they didn’t support it at first. PBO was the only one who consistently supported the OBL from the moment he decided to do it.
I’ve read that also.
President Obama took a calculated risk and demonstrated great COURAGE in his decision about the OBL raid. He risked his presidency for this.
That he’s considered WEAK in some quarters is one of the most outrageous things I’ve seen during his presidency. He’s everything but weak !! Too bad that a political culture obsessed with authoritarianism and bravado is unable to see how STRONG this President is.
Oh, sorry. I didn’t read your comment close enough.
I will be able to live with a Hillary Clinton presidency simply because it will prevent a bunch of corrupt and stupid republicans from controlling the executive branch.
But let’s realize, folks, that we have now in President Obama one of the most HONORABLE, UNSELFISH, CARING, COURAGEOUS president America has EVER HAD.
He NEVER, EVER puts politics before his duty , before his responsibilities towards his country and its citizens. He ALWAYS tries to do the right thing, EVEN WHEN IT’S HARD. This is a RARE quality among american politicians, I’m sorry to say.
We’ve discussed over the years why President Obama isn’t popular among the Beltway crowd. Simple: they KNOW he’s not one of them. He doesn’t trade favors, he never puts politics first, he refuses to play their games. A man of INTEGRITY in the midst of a corrupt political culture.
Beautifully said.
This is historic.
One reason why it is important for the U.S. to bring their POW soldiers home, is that it speak to the soldiers on the field now, and it let them know that if they are caught the U.S. will never give up till they are brought back home,regardless.
Even as calls grew in Congress for Shinseki, 71, to step down, and details emerged of an effort to misreport scheduling delays for patient appointments, many in the uniformed military had remained decidedly in Shinseki’s camp, convinced that an American hero maimed in Vietnam and humiliated for publicly questioning Iraq policy during the Bush administration was being made a scapegoat….
….But to some of those who served alongside him in uniform, Friday’s announcement marked the fourth time in Shinseki’s career that he has been wounded in the service of his country. This time, it was because he did the same things that had made him such a successful Army commander he trusted those around him, reacted calmly to crisis, and when learning of a problem tried to address it through channels…..In Vietnam, Shinseki sustained shrapnel wounds in the shoulder and chest, returned to combat, then lost part of his right foot when a landmine exploded. His grace in dealing with his wounds resonated with the last generation of soldiers……
He rose swiftly through the ranks to command the 7th Army and U.S. forces in Central Europe. As chief of staff of the Army, he created the Stryker brigades, assembled around agile new vehicles designed for urban warfare. In Iraq, especially, they became critical forces. But it was his comments in the 2003 run-up to the Iraq War that, to some soldiers, made him a national hero and symbol thoughtful resistance to the growing warpath. Calling on his experience as a commander of peacekeeping troops in Bosnia, Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers” would likely be required for postwar Iraq, not the few thousand that the Bush administration had predicted…..
So the NY Times was misreporting as usual…what else is new?
And that was a classified briefing, so why is Chambliss even speaking.
ask him
japa21, this is proof right there that the Republicans and Feinstein would not have kept it a secret if the WH told them about what they were about to do.
exactly - NEVER trust a republican at a classified briefing - then again - the WH well knows that.
True…
I won’t hold a grudge to Chambliss for this. The fact isn’t relevant to national security. And it makes the New York Times look like fools.
I have a growing feeling that ONCE AGAIN, the mainstream media will look like total fools in a few days or a few weeks.
WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?
Exactly!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mccrystal-dont-judge-bergdahl-yet
Retired Gen. Stanley McCrystal on Wednesday said it was too soon to “judge” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and the Obama administration’s decision to negotiate for his release from the Taliban.
“I think we’re going to have to wait and talk to Sgt. Bergdahl now and get his side of the story,” McCrystal told Yahoo News about the soldier, who has been characterized as a deserter by some of his platoon members. “One of the great things about America is we should not judge until we know the facts. And after we know the facts, then we should make a mature judgment on how we should handle it.”
The retired general defended efforts to return Bergdahl after he left his post in Afghanistan.
“We did a huge number of operations to try to stop the Taliban from being able to move him across the border into Pakistan,” McChrystal said. “And we made a great effort, and put a lot of people at risk in doing that, but that’s what you should do. That’s what soldiers do for each other.”
Wow, after what General McCrystal did to President Obama a few years ago, I appreciate this. Sanity in the midst of hysteria.
What I worry about is the textbook companies writing history from the Republican viewpoint. Most of those companies are in Texas and share the GOP viewpoint as big business. Just saw that the Chinese younger generation do not seem to know about Tienamin (sp?) Square. Their government worked hard at deleting that info as will the Republicans with their actions during Obama’s Presidency.
I have some good news!! For the first time in years I was at the markets at 9am - wow - talk about service - there was me and a couple of young Moms and that was it. I should do this more often :)
New post:
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/06/04/first-lady-announces-mayors-challenge-to-end-veteran-homelessness/
As things progress and the talkers talk (out their collective asses)…let’s keep things in perspective and keep this in mind:
http://blogforarizona.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Chickenhawks.jpg h/t Blog for Arizona
http://www.mediaite.com/online/secret-service-denies-video-of-obama-pumping-iron-was-security-breach/
He said, “This is no different than if the President visited a restaurant off the record and other diners took pictures of him.” So, in other words, no one was strictly prevented from being in the vicinity or taking pictures of the president, he claims.
////
So this is OK by the SService? I feel better? OK….just a tad.