Slick Barry – Barack Obama Blog

“Know W, Know War.  No W, No War.”  Remember that bumper sticker?  Do Slick Barry’s followers still believe it?

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Gen Keane also suggested there could be a longer US troop presence in Afghanistan following Gen Petraeus’s nomination.

Speaking in the context of Mr Obama’s promise to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July next year, Gen Keane said: “If we are going to be successful, we will have to extend the political clock in Washington DC and I don’t know anyone who will be better able to do that than Petraeus, if indeed he is able to make the progress we think he can make.”

Asked about the July 2011 timeline on Thursday, Gen Petraeus told CNN: “I support the president’s policy, and I will also provide the best professional military advice as we conduct assessments.”

But in congressional testimony last week, when he spoke in his outgoing capacity as head of US central command, he warned against rigid timelines. Asked whether the July 2011 withdrawal date reflected his best personal, professional judgment, he gave only what he called a “qualified yes”.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/132b9fd0-7fb9-11df-91b4-00144feabdc0.html

For all his John Wayne rhetoric on the BP oil spill, President Obama has failed to administer a swift kick to the ample, deserving rump of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. No matter: Federal judge Martin Feldman has now done the job the White House won’t do.

In a scathing ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, New Orleans–based Feldman overturned the administration’s radical six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling — and he singled out Salazar’s central role in jury-rigging a federal panel’s scientific report to bolster flagrantly politicized conclusions.

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Scientists who served on the committee expressed outrage upon discovering earlier this month that Salazar had — unilaterally and without warning — inserted a blanket drilling-ban recommendation into their report. As Feldman recounted in his ruling:

 

In the Executive Summary to the Report, (Salazar) recommends “a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs.” He also recommends “an immediate halt to drilling operations on the 33 permitted wells, not including relief wells currently being drilled by BP, that are currently being drilled using floating rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Much to the government’s discomfort and this Court’s uneasiness, the Summary also states that “the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.” As the plaintiffs, and the experts themselves, pointedly observe, this statement was misleading. The experts charge it was a “misrepresentation.” It was factually incorrect.

Allow me to be more injudicious: Salazar lied. Salazar committed fraud. Salazar sullied the reputations of the experts involved and abused his authority.

And for what purpose? To exploit the Gulf crisis, appease the eco-extremists, and stymie the economic recovery to which the Obama White House pays oily lip service.

The scientists whose views were misrepresented reportedly received an apology from the evidence-doctoring Salazar, but where are the consequences? Where is the accountability? Terrific news: Salazar, the report-rigger, is in charge of overseeing it.

http://article.nationalreview.com/436964/ken-salazar-gets-a-kick-in-the-you-know-what/michelle-malkin

On McChrystal, little bark — or bite — from Obama

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, June 23, 2010; A02

 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal flew to Washington on Tuesday afternoon to explain, among other things, why a top adviser used the phrase “Bite Me” in reference to the vice president. But White House officials didn’t wait for the general’s plane to land before sinking their teeth into him.

President Obama’s hand-selected commander in Afghanistan had, along with his aides, made shockingly insubordinate comments to Rolling Stone magazine: calling the national security adviser a “clown,” describing Obama as intimidated and disengaged, disparaging allies and top U.S. diplomats, and converting Vice President Biden’s surname to Bite Me. Obama ordered McChrystal to appear in the Situation Room on Wednesday, but in the briefing room on Tuesday, press secretary Robert Gibbs was already feasting.

First bite: “General McChrystal,” Gibbs said, “has made an enormous mistake.”

Second bite: “I think the magnitude and graveness of the mistake here are profound.”

Third bite: “The purpose for calling him here is to see what in the world he was thinking.”

Gibbs kept on chewing out the commander. “I think anybody that reads that article understands . . . what an enormous mistake this was,” he said. Parents of soldiers “need to know that the structure where they’re sending their children is one that is capable and mature enough in prosecuting a war.”

ABC News’s Jake Tapper stopped him. “Did I hear you correctly? So you’re questioning whether General McChrystal is capable and mature enough for this job he has?”

“You had my quote right,” Gibbs said.

Only two words were missing from this disembowelment of the commander: You’re fired. Gibbs hinted that Obama would deliver that message to McChrystal in person on Wednesday. If he doesn’t, it’s hard to see how he can maintain his credibility as a leader.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062204541_pf.html

http://www.wdsu.com/news/23997498/detail.html

NEW ORLEANS - 

The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done.

 

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.

 

Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.

 

“Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil,” Nungesser wrote to Obama. “Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

 

Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work.

 

Work is scheduled to halt at midnight Wednesday.

 

The California dredge located off the Chandelier Islands has pumped more than 50,000 cubic yards of material daily to create a sand berm, according to Plaquemines Parish officials.

 

Nungesser’s letter includes an emotional plea to the president.

 

“Please don’t let them shut this dredge down,” he wrote. “This requires your immediate attention!” The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done.

 

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.

 

Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.

 

“Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil,” Nungesser wrote to Obama. “Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

 

Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work.

 

Work is scheduled to halt at midnight Wednesday.

 

The California dredge located off the Chandelier Islands has pumped more than 50,000 cubic yards of material daily to create a sand berm, according to Plaquemines Parish officials.

 

Nungesser’s letter includes an emotional plea to the president.

 

“Please don’t let them shut this dredge down,” he wrote. “This requires your immediate attention!”