Barack Obama has transformed the US overnight, from a country with one of the harshest anti-dope regimes, to one with some of the most liberal in the world.
Obama administration
US politely averts its gaze from the coup in Honduras
No you see it, now you don’t. The coup in Honduras of June 28 has revealed not only the deep divide between an impoverished majority and a privileged elite within Honduras, but the profoundly schizoid nature of the US’ foreign policy, writes Warwick Fry.
White House doesn’t wear the Fox hat
Travelling through the US, Simon Burrow reports on the battle of Fox News vs. the White House. Has open war broken out between old and new media?
Afghanistan: Get nasty or get out
Obama’s “soft” approach in Afghanistan is a joke, says Michael Scheuer. It’s time to start making some unpleasant choices: get tough with half-a-million more troops, landmines and loads of civilians casualties, or get out.
Forget the GoP: Fox News is the new Opposition Party
Fox News is no longer in the business of journalism, says Eric Boehlert: it has turned itself into the Opposition Party of the Obama White House, and the rest of the media needs to start treating it as such.
Shhh! Obama sneaks 13,000 extra troops into Afghanistan
The White House publicly announced that 21,000 more troops would be sent to Afghanistan this year — what they didn’t mention was that an additional 13,000 “support” troops were also being deployed. Sneaky semantics.
Eff ‘em: the potty mouthed Obama administration
US politicians usually have a reputation for being a bit holier than thou, but the Obama administration are a pretty foul mouthed lot, dropping f bombs and sons of bitches with reckless abandon.
White House slams Glenn Beck and Fox News
The official White House blog is getting pretty lippy for such an official government channel, attacking Fox News host Glenn Beck for his “attempt to smear” the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid and providing rebuttals to Fox’s “lies”. Meow.
Running a country? There’s an app for that!
The Obama administration has created its own “app store” for government employees, to make sure all public servants are up with the latest high-tech tools for running the country.
How chicken feet could prevent an international trade war
China is threatening to cut off its lucrative import stream of American chicken, following Obama’s decision to slap higher tariffs on Chinese car tires. But the US has an ace up its sleeve: the “jumbo, juicy paws” of Yankee-bred chooks.
Greenwald: Obama’s Guantanamo closure was a sham
Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo is the “biggest sham in American politics”: the administration just filed a legal brief [PDF] stating that detainees at Bagram Airfield have no constitutional rights whatsoever — including habeas corpus.
Guy Rundle: Those crazy ole Republicans aren’t funny anymore
The US is heading towards a health care bill of 20% of GDP, at which point the country has, economically, become one huge hospital. If Obama is not allowed to fix it, it will crash and burn.
US super embassy won’t win hearts and minds in Pakistan
A planned new US “super embassy” in Islamabad sends a very visible message about the US engagement with Pakistan, writes Shakira Hussein.
Saving Somalia from itself
Somalia could become Obama’s new Afghanistan, says the Christian Science Monitor: if he doesn’t flex some muscle there now, it could easily become the next terrorist nesting ground.
‘Global War on Terror’ over
US President Obama’s assistant for counterterrorism and homeland security, John Brennan, has declared the idea of a “global war on terror” over, promising a significant ideological shift in the US’s approach to combating extremism, and its root causes, around the world.
The melting Arctic photos Bush tried to hide
More than 1000 spy satellite photos of Arctic ice have been recently declassified by the Obama Administration, providing pretty compelling - and terrifying - evidence of rapidly melting ice.
What Cheney knew — and why it’s a test for Obama
That longed-for moment when we see either Dick Cheney or, could it be possible, Dubya himself, in the dock, has come a little closer. But would Obama order an inquiry into the secret ops of the Bush years?
Guy Rundle: How the US is brewing imperialism with disengagement
Media around the world have been screaming that Biden had given the green light for an attack on Iran in his interview on ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopolous.
The WashPo cash-for-access scandal
The Washington Post has faced massive backlash since Politico revealed the paper was to host an exclusive “salon” where lobbyists and execs could have off-the-record access to “those powerful few” — like Obama officials and the paper’s own reporters and editors.
Helen Thomas: Obama is a media control freak
Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas is becoming increasingly worried about the Obama administration’s attempts to control the press, stating that even Nixon didn’t try to exert the same level of control.
US economy seesaws around the punchbowl
No rate rise before 2011? Are conditions in the US really that bad? Yes and no, says Glenn Dyer.
Crikey Says: Boom times for guns, irony
US government-to-government arms sales are growing fast and will likely exceed $40 billion for 2009. It’s all part of their strategy for international diplomacy, you see…
Backing away from Gitmo pledge
The White House seem to be having second thoughts about their hasty closure of Guantánamo Bay prison, Cuba, with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs now calling it a “hasty decision”.
The Atlantic / Thursday, 22 October 2009
So what if Fox News is conservative? asks Matthew Cooper. That’s no excuse for the White House to completely shun it: “If the White House can reach out to the Iranians and North Koreans, for gosh sakes, they can talk to Shepard Smith.”