Obama Administration Not Sure if U.S. Commander in Afghanistan is 'Ready', May Be 'Naive' or Just 'An Upstart'

Incredible: 

According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.

The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago’s unsuccessful Olympic bid.

And why was the Obama Administration so upset?

In London, Gen McChrystal, who heads the 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan as well as the 100,000 Nato forces, flatly rejected proposals to switch to a strategy more reliant on drone missile strikes and special forces operations against al-Qaeda.

He told the Institute of International and Strategic Studies that the formula, which is favoured by Vice-President Joe Biden, would lead to “Chaos-istan”.

When asked whether he would support it, he said: “The short answer is: No.”

He went on to say: “Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support….”

Gen McChrystal delivered a report on Afghanistan requested by the president on Aug 31, but Mr Obama held only his second “principals meeting” on the issue last week.

He will hold at least one more this week, but a decision on how far to follow Gen McChrystal’s recommendation to send 40,000 more US troops will not be made for several weeks.

And the Administration’s perception of why McChrystal would make such comments:

An adviser to the administration said: “People aren’t sure whether McChrystal is being naïve or an upstart. To my mind he doesn’t seem ready for this Washington hard-ball and is just speaking his mind too plainly.”

Yes, please continue to tell the military how to operate, since Washington obviously understands the situation far better than anyone actually working in Afghanistan; just like Iraq, right?

July 20, 2007:  

 ”Here’s what we know. The surge has not worked.”

September 4, 2008 :  

“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated” … “It’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

Proposta de reforma de Obama deve legalizar imigrantes nos EUA

WASHINGTON – Embora o presidente Barack Obama tenha adiado uma reforma imigratória para o próximo ano, a agência federal responsável pela aprovação de vistos já começou a se planejar para a possibilidade de conceder status legal a milhões de imigrantes, afirmou o diretor da agência na quinta-feira.

“Nós estamos nos preparando para isso”, disse Alejandro Mayorkas, o diretor da agência Serviços de Cidadania e Imigração dos Estados Unido.

Obama disse às autoridades de imigração que um programa de legalização fará parte da legislação que a Casa Branca planeja propor, disse Mayorkas que se tornou diretor em agosto.

A meta da agência, segundo ele, é estar pronta para expandir rapidamente seu trabalho para lidar com o grande aumento no pedido de vistos de permanência que decorrerá da possível aprovalção da nova legislação, conhecida como ampla reforma imigratória, pelo Congresso.

A agência de cidadania enfrenta a busca por um difícil equilíbrio, preparando-se para uma carga de trabalho possivelmente muito maior, com base em uma legislação em fase de debates iniciais que é ferozmente contrariada por muitos legisladores do Congresso.

Além disso, a agência tem que trabalhar para reduzir os atrasos que prejudicam seu desempenho.

Não há estimativas oficiais do número de imigrantes ilegais que solicitarão documentos para a legalização.

Os centros de pesquisas Pew Hispanic Center e Center for Immigration Studies, de Washington, calculam que pelo menos 10,8 milhões de imigrantes ilegais moram no país.

Mas muitos destes não poderiam pedir a legalização por muitos motivos, incluindo violações imigratórias no passado.

Atualmente, a agência de cidadania controla o pedido de cerca de 6 milhões de imigrantes por ano, disse Mayorkas, incluindo a demorada coleção de impressões digitais e outras informação de identidade biométricas.

Sob a nova lei, a agência poderia receber este número de pedidos em algumas semanas.

Um exemplo do planejamento, segundo Mayorkas, é um esforço para melhorar a habilidade da agência de receber pedidos pelo correio e caixas fortalecidas colocadas em pontos de fácil acesso.

Atualmente a agência recebe 65% dos pedidos de cidadania por estas caixas, que são mais eficientes do que muitos escritórios locais.

A agência quer receber todos os processos através destas caixas no futuro.

Uma das propostas será pedir que os imigrantes ilegais comecem o processo de legalização verificando sua possibilidade de permanência nos Estados Unidos através de um formulário de registro que deve ser enviado à agência, de acordo com autoridades envolvidas na questão.

- Julia Preston

Leia mais sobre imigração ilegal

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Pour une nouvelle médaille olympique

La ville de Chicago est arrivée 4eme et dernière dans le choix de la ville Olympique 2016. Rio empoche donc la médaille d’or, Madrid l’argent, Tokyo le bronze et Chicago donc ?
Je crois qu’après la médaille d’or, d’argent et de bronze, insuffisantes pour récompenser les perdants ou ceux qui n’ont pu accéder à la tribune des vainqueurs, il faudrait inventer ou créer une 4me médaille Olympique, on la nommerait la médaille …….. mais d’abord avant le nom à qui serait elle attribuée ?

Elle serait attribuée
- à ceux qui “tentent beaucoup mais réussissent peu”.
- à ceux qui considèrent qu’on peut ” très bien jouer et ne pas gagner”
- à ceux qui sont les meilleurs pour parler que pour faire.
- à ceux qui sont plus une célébrité qu’un homme d’Etat.
- à ceux qui sont séduisants, populaires mais sont appelés à la réalité par les faits.
- à ceux qui foncent vers une défaite assurée plutôt que d’ encourir le reproche de ne pas savoir se désister à temps.

On l’appellerait après la médaille d’or, la médaille d’argent et la médaille de bronze …….on l’appellerait la médaille obama.

The Audacity of Nope

Great read from the UK edition of the Times Online regarding Obama’s latest failure, securing the 2016 Olympics for Chicago.

There has been a growing narrative taking hold about Barack Obama’s presidency in recent weeks: that he is loved by many, but feared by none; that he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence.

Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.

It was only the Olympic Games, the White House will argue — not a high-stakes diplomatic gamble with North Korea. It is always worthwhile when Mr Obama sells America to the rest of the world, David Axelrod, his chief political adviser, said today. But that argument will fall on deaf ears in the US. Americans want their presidents to be winners.

Mr Obama was greeted — as usual — like a rock star by the IOC delegates in Copenhagen — then humiliated by them. Perception is reality. A narrow defeat for Chicago would have been acceptable — but the sheer scale of the defeat was a bombshell, and is a major blow for Mr Obama at a time when questions are being asked about his style of governance.

 So true. The World loves him yet doesn’t respect him.  Many Americans just don’t respect him.  View the full article here.

Obama visita de urgencia a Putin por que a perdido el control de la situación

Asi es, este blog solo pondrá información importante, no esperen mucho escrito mio. de vez en cuando si, solo me dedicare a replicar información importante para que se extiendan cosas importantes que se deben saber. asi que copio y pego esta importante noticia extraida de Rafapal

De acuerdo a los servicios secretos rusos que informan a la persona que se oculta tras el nombre “Sorcha Faal”, Obama se detuvo de urgencia en la base aérea Pulkovo de San Petersburgo a su paso a Dinamarca (ceremonia para elegir ciudad para Juegos Olímpicos) y mantuvieron una reunión en el Air Force One.

Allí, Obama le contó a Putin que unos días antes había tenido una reunión con todos los jefes de los ejércitos y los servicios secretos para hablar de la guerra de Afganistán en la que poco menos le dijeron “que él no era quien mandaba”. El Ministro de Defensa, Robert Gates, sacó de la reunión a uno de los mejores asesores de Obama, Mark Lippert, y le dijo al presidente que iban a aumentar las tropas en Afganistán, le gustara o no.

Viendo cómo estaba la situación, Putin le preguntó a Obama si iba a conseguir recuperar el control de la situación, a lo que éste le contestó “puede que no lo haga” (”I may not make it”). Como prueba de que el presidente de un país no tiene el Poder, un poderoso senador norteamericano llamado Jim Demint está conspirando para mantener en el poder al golpista hondureño Micheletti, en contra de la política del propio presidente.

Lo que estamos contemplando (y vamos a vivir en las próximas semanas, si Dios no lo remedia) es una operación de los nazis (o Iluminati o sionistas) injertados en el gobierno norteamericano desde el final de la segunda guerra mundial para establecer una dictadura, con la complicidad  de los “extremistas de derecha” (milicias, opuestas al proyecto de sanidad, manipuladas por estos grupos). El establecimiento de la Ley Marcial ha comenzado con la Operación Diomedes, que este miércoles ha sacado a una decena de helicópteros y tropas a patrullar por un pueblo de Tennesse, llamado Troya. Y curiosamente en el parque de Troya se va a desarrollar uno de los ejercicios de esta Operación, llamada así… por un héroe de la Guerra de Troya, dejando claro que la personas que la han ideado están conectadas genealógicamente con el pueblo fenicio. Otra ciudad, llamada Hardin, en Montana, ha sido tomada por la American Police Force Company, un grupo paramilitar liderado por un “señor de la guerra de Yugoslavia”, expatriado a América, convicto y que regenta este grupo de mercenarios.

En la entrevista que le hice la semana pasada a Isabel y que publicaré mañana me hablaba de que nos esperan 3 meses de oscuridad. Con el pretexto de la gripe y el crack económico al terminar el año fiscal norteamericano, esto no ha hecho más que empezar. Mantened la calma las próximas semanas y visualizad un final feliz. Al final de estos 3 meses, empezaremos a ver la luz después de 26.000 años…

PD: Todo esto coincide con el referéndum sobre la constitución de la UE en Europa, en medio de unas desmedidas celebraciones de todas las televisiones a cuenta de ¡la elección de ciudad candidata a sede de Juegos Olímpicos” ¿Habéis visto qué despliegue? Me temo que va a ser la cortina de humo para ocultar el tongo en el referendum irlandés.

Own It, Jimmy

Today, former President Jimmy Carter tried to backtrack on his comments that political opposition to Barack Obama is based on racism.  From Politico (quoted from an interview with CNN), Carter denied his charges saying (emphasis added is mine):

“By the way, that’s not what I said,” Carter interjected as he was being asked about the comment. “If you read the remarks carefully, you’ll see that’s not what I said.”
“I said those that had a personal attack on President Obama as a person, that was tinged with racism,” Carter explained. “But I recognize that people who disagree with him on health care or the environment, that the vast majority of those are not tinged by racism.”

 Oh, really?  Let’s go back and review what was said.

In the September 15 interview, Mr. Carter tells Brian Williams (emphasis added is mine):

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American,” Carter said. “I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that shared the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans”

Continued Carter, who is famously from Georgia: “And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply.”

So, Mr. Carter, which is it?  A “tinge” or an “overwhelming portion?” 

Even the White House came out and disagreed with Mr. Carter’s statements.  When questioned, Robert Gibbs, White House Spokesman said that President Obama “doesn’t think criticism of his policies is based on the color of his skin.”

Mr. Carter, if you’re wrong, you’re wrong, admit it and move on.  But enough of the denials and parsing of words.

Sarah Palin's 'Going Rogue' Is Already A Best Seller

Move over, Dan Brown. Sarah Palin is on top of the charts.

Just two days after HarperCollins announced that Palin’s “Going Rogue” had been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, preorders for the former Alaska governor’s memoir made it No. 1 on both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

Among the books “Going Rogue” is outselling: Sen. Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass,” Mitch Albom’s “Have a Little Faith” and Brown’s “The Lost Symbol,” his first novel since “The Da Vinci Code” and, perhaps until now, the year’s most anticipated release.

Palin, in collaboration with author Lynn Vincent, completed her 400-page book just four months after agreeing to terms with HarperCollins, which plans a first printing of 1.5 million copies. It’s the first book by Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor until suddenly resigning last summer.

She is regarded as a possible 2012 contender for the presidency. Past candidates, notably Barack Obama, have been helped by writing best-selling books, invaluable platforms for politicians to tell their story.