"It' is not a surprise to me that we are having problems at Guantanamo." He calls Guantanamo unsafe, expensive, and lessens cooperation with our allies. "It needs to be closed," Obama said. He notes that Congress has legislatively blocked him from closing Guantanamo.I am going to go back at this ≈ Nothing will change.
"I am going to go back at this," said Obama, "I am going to reengage with Congress that this is not in the best interest of the American people."...
"This is a lingering problem that is not going to get better," Obama says. "It's going to get worse."
३० एप्रिल, २०१३
Obama gets back to the topic of closing Guantanamo.
At the press conference today:
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He notes that Congress has legislatively blocked him from closing Guantanamo.
He had control of Congress until 2010 midterms.
He's a bullshitter.
If only he'd go back to jobs or growing the economy instead of redistributing the economy, as a side note via Mankiew:
In the end, all the corrections advocated by the critics shift the average GDP growth for very-high-debt nations to 2.2 percent, from a negative 0.1 percent in Reinhart and Rogoff’s original work. The finding remains that economic growth is lower in very-high-debt countries (see chart). It has been disappointing to watch those on the left seize on the embarrassing Excel errors but ignore this bigger picture.
Yes I'm aware we're paying down $35 billion.
Perhaps someone can help me out here. Gitmo is a military base no? Obama is CinC so if he orders it, how does Congress block that?
Failing that then why not pardon them and release?
I'd love for someone to ask him the follow-up question of which allies won't cooperate with us because of Guantanamo.
I'm guessing none. There is no other county that wants to deal with the guys who remain there.
He also mentioned how awful indefinite detention there is, but that's what he proposed as a solution to bringing them on US soil. He proposed those found not guilty could be held in fed prison anyway.
Another pivot.
He shoots.
And he's 2 for 22!
Nobody was waiting for word on this. It's distraction pure and simple.
I suspect that some day we will be able do a kind of safe lobotomy that will remove only the tendency to violence in a person. Will we then do that and free people like this. We are only holding them because they are dangerous. If we give them the option of freedom with lobotomy, or life in Guantanmo, how many would choose Guantanmo? How many would choose Guantanmo AND the lobotomy?
Obama's mouth was moving. Ergo: everything he said was a lie.
But why these lies? He is only saying words that show he still feels indebted to the Muslim religion.
And next time someone tries to say Obama hates the buzzy cultural issues, remember he came back to the microphones to praise (at some length) Jason Collins.
I am going to go back at this
Is that before or after he pivots to the economy?
He had control of Congress until 2010 midterms.
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
he's a stickler for the Constitution and separation of powers.
Yes, but he has more "flexibility" now.
"He calls Guantanamo unsafe, expensive, and lessens cooperation with our allies. "
Unsafe like Baaston? How many legs have been blown off at Gitmo?
And with which "allies" does keeping it open lessen cooperation?
Cuba?
Does this mean he's planning to fly around the country giving speeches demanding that Congress do something about Guantanamo?
Obama never had 60 votes on his Guantanamo ideas because he couldn't get enough Democrats or Republicans to agree with them.
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
Same amount of time it took to pass the ACA.
Colonel Angus said...
Obama is CinC so if he orders it, how does Congress block that?
Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution give Congress the power ... To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;...
My favorite was his contention that he was unfamiliar with the idea that his administration is blocking Benghazi whistleblower from speaking to Congress.
Couldn't even bring himself to say he would make sure they get to talk.
Everyone wants to do the stuff that is not a high priority to the average unemployed or underemployed American. Let me make a list:
1-Close Gitmo
2-Give amnesty to 11 million or more illegal immigrants and bankrupt the country even more
3-Warn people that global warming creates more hookers and hos.
4- Stop using words like penmanship and fisherman.
5- Save helium balloons.
What do we do with the inmates?
Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution give Congress the power ... To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;...
Thanks. Well if its that bad, he can always pardon them. Bringing them to the states and a Federal prison does to change the situation?
None of America's airports are currently among the worlds' top airports because of future reduced budget increases.
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
Wasn't his first act as President signing an order to close Gitmo? Could have done it then.
Perhaps we close Guantanamo and open Geronimo.
Geronimo could have prayer rugs, good food, a google station and a pressure cooker store with a food stamp co-op and a health care exchange union?
Guantanamo is safer for jihadists than the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was for a U.S. ambassador.
Also, governors who usually like states' rights are being inconsistent because they won't just do the thing the federal government told them to do for Obamacare.
I love the way President NoRed States No Blue States works so hard to understand others' points of view.
Zero can learn from Mrs. T on how the handle hunger strikers; let them starve to death. Then he can close Gitmo.
He also says Baaston wasn't an intelligence failure.
Pearl Harbor was less of an intel failure.
Chicago PMI implodes, Philly, Dallas, and the stock market goes higher.
"I'd like to close it but I've had neither the time or power as President over the last 5 years to get it done due to Congress."
Maybe a little less golf & vacation?
Didn't he say in 2011 that we were getting useful info out of Gitmo?
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
Doesn't matter. The Dems ran the House in that time. The Democrats that voted to keep it open must be racist haters.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/8/congress-deals-death-blow-gitmo-closure/?page=all
"I'm going to reengage"= I am going to do everything in my power to whip up emotions and beat up on people who disagree with me that these detainees should be tried in civilian courts.
I am going to go back at this
Just like:
-The economy
-Gun control
-Fast & Furious
-Benghazi
The Democrats that voted to keep it open must be racist haters.
Just cowards.
Given the Boston Marathon attack by radical Muslims only two weeks ago, this is curious timing. My first thought, like bagoh20, was distraction, but it's hard to figure just now.
I suppose it's just more culture war to cast blame on the Republican House and heat up the base for the 2014 midterms.
Also, I am tired of him lamenting that he doesn't have enough power. Weren't we told in 2007 that one of his greatest strengths was as concensus builder?
Just cowards.
You mean there are other reasons to disagree with Obama that hating him because he's black?
It's beside the point, though. Your quip about having not having sixty votes is moot.
He seems to have a problem following thru on things. The actual "execution" part rather than just whining about how he just can't direct things to happen. Speeches are easy but governing is hard work. No one accuses him of the latter
"This is a lingering problem that is not going to get better," Obama says. "It's going to get worse."
He kind of defines his second term, right there.
Obama so much wants this to be September 10. That explains his desire to bring KSM and the rest into the United States for criminal trials, treating this as if it is a law-and-order problem.
But Congress rightly still understands that this is war, not criminality.
Also, I am tired of him lamenting that he doesn't have enough power. Weren't we told in 2007 that one of his greatest strengths was as concensus builder?
Excellent point. When he and the Democrats rode that 2008 tsunami into the White House and Congress, Obama in particular took a bit too much joy in rubbing the GOPs nose in it and made no effort at being conciliatory. Bush, for all of his faults, at least made a sincere effort to work with the Democrats.
Obama acted like a jerk on day one and wonders why no one on the GOP wants to work with him. The man clearly did not possess the temperment for the office.
Yes, we were told Obama's experience as a community organizer showed he was a consensus builder and that he was "Post-partisan" too.
The media's collective orgasm over him was pretty big.
As a follow up, future Presidents should bear in mind that the electorate is fickle. Bush left office with ratings worse than Truman. What appeared to be a complete repudiation of the GOP turned into a massive GOP House victory a mere two years later and a nearly 50/50 Senate.
The moral of the story is that no matter how bad the previous guy was, don't think that gives you a blank check.
All of President Obama's promises come with an expiration date...all of them.
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
Just ram through a resolution as a budget item -- just like the ACA -- only simple majority required.
I don't remember any president campaigning non-stop like this.
He was just inaugurated three months ago and already everything he does seems calculated to win big in 2014 so he can really govern in his last two years.
@Bob, you broke the code!!!
Even back as a community organizer Obama's lack of follow-through was obvious to anyone who cared to look.
Yes, Guantanamo will get worse. It's that damned SEQUESTRATION the GOP
IMPOSED on us innocent Presidents. Damn that BUSH!!!!1111!!
garage mahal said...
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
How pathetic are you?
But to answer your question you pathetic little whiner:
From July 7, 2009 to August 25, 2009 and From September 25, 2009 (when Paul Kirk was appointed to replace Kennedy) to February 4, 2010.
Remember, "accountability" regarding Democrats is something you don't do.
"I'd like to close it but I've had neither the time or power as President over the last 5 years to get it done due to Congress."
And I'd really hate to have to go down there and talk to those assholes and be persuasive enough to see my position so that they may change their votes. I'd rather just sit up here in my office and carp.
But to answer your question you pathetic little whiner:
LOL. You're fucking psychotic.
it's that son of a bitch Johnson and this goddamn war.
GM,
C'mon, man, you're bigger than this (no pun intended). Just admit you were wrong.
Obama's focused like a laser beam on those nasty twisted super dangerous bitter clingers. They're where the threat to enlightened best and brightest America will come from. Islam? What dat?
Hilarious:
Greatest orator ever? Obama says gay NBA player Jason Collins 'can bang with Shaq
garage mahal said...
LOL. You're fucking psychotic.
LOL You beclown yourself yet again.
Remember when the Lefties said Darth did this to dubya?
Off Insta
A revealing new book from one of the media’s longest serving White House correspondents reports that President Obama surrounds himself only with “idolizers,” and top aides make sure that those whose view might “shake him up too much” are shoved aside.
I mean, this surprises nobody, but it's interesting to see this in an actual book.
Still in print.
PS I see Zero is "unaware" of the Benghazi whistleblowers.
Obama stands with the gay. All else pales into...correction, disappears in comparison.
C'mon, man, you're bigger than this (no pun intended). Just admit you were wrong.
About what?
It's OUR America now!
--Sam Donaldson
Translation: Stick it STICK IT STICK IT TO THE SQUARES!
Once again, Obama is full of shit. His supporters will smell it and declare it to be the fragrance of ambrosia!
edutcher, you should read Ed Driscoll's piece, "Barry Munchkin".
Via Belmont Club - Andy McCarthy:
...Because you are being softened up. Steered by its Gitmo Bar veterans and Lawyer Left compass, the Obama administration is executing a massive national-security fraud: the farce that the jihad against America can be judicialized, that civilian-court processes are a better answer to enemy warfare than are combat protocols. …
So in the effort to tame you into believing civilian due process has proved wildly successful in the Marathon bombing investigation, just as Obama and Holder promised it would, the government is now strategically leaking interrogation details.
Sure it may look like the investigation was a tragicomedy of errors in which our $100 billion national-security edifice, despite investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev for a year and a half before the bombing, had to ask the public’s help in identifying a picture of him. But look: We stopped a spectacular bombing at Times Square! And sure, there’s a lot of innuendo about Islam and overseas “extremists,” but after 16 hours of penetrating scrutiny we’ve figured out that this was just wanton “homegrown” violence committed by a couple of confused kids — the sort of thing that is bound to happen if we don’t crack down on gun ownership and Islamophobia.
The fraud is on. Will we keep falling for it?...
Close the base. Take our people out of there. Run down the flag. Leave the jihadis in place.
Let the Cubans deal with it. They've wanted us out of there for so long. We only stayed there to piss 'em off. It's not like we really need Guantanamo.
In the future, write the rules of engagement to the effect of taking no enemy combatant prisoners. Kill 'em all.
Via Belmont Club - Andy McCarthy:
...Because you are being softened up. Steered by its Gitmo Bar veterans and Lawyer Left compass, the Obama administration is executing a massive national-security fraud: the farce that the jihad against America can be judicialized, that civilian-court processes are a better answer to enemy warfare than are combat protocols. …
So in the effort to tame you into believing civilian due process has proved wildly successful in the Marathon bombing investigation, just as Obama and Holder promised it would, the government is now strategically leaking interrogation details.
Sure it may look like the investigation was a tragicomedy of errors in which our $100 billion national-security edifice, despite investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev for a year and a half before the bombing, had to ask the public’s help in identifying a picture of him. But look: We stopped a spectacular bombing at Times Square! And sure, there’s a lot of innuendo about Islam and overseas “extremists,” but after 16 hours of penetrating scrutiny we’ve figured out that this was just wanton “homegrown” violence committed by a couple of confused kids — the sort of thing that is bound to happen if we don’t crack down on gun ownership and Islamophobia.
The fraud is on. Will we keep falling for it?...
Did Obama spend the night of Benghazi - after telling Pinetta not to disturb him with that commander in chief shit - shooting hoops? With a gay? Then ALL IS WELL.
Clearly we should grant the inmates full pardons, amnesties, 100k each in various benefits & welfare, an education, and a relocation to Boston, MA. Then we could close Guantanamo with a clear conscience and put this ugly chapter in American history behind us.
Community organizer's gotta play to the actual base, not the base that keeps voting him in.
I'm sure this level of politicizing is good for dealing with actual threats and a coherent foreign policy.
Some people are still buying it, in which case, Obama's got a bridge for you.
Anyone remember the Cairo speech?
I think Obama still believes it.
Beware of the boss who seems to believe in a lot of the bullshit around and about him.
About what?
Sigh.
"Blah blah, bluh blah blah blah."
-Barack Obama
So we transfer the prisoners to American prisons and that does what?
They'll go on hunger strikes and disrupt things here too.
This is a deliberate tactic by the terrorists to win over world opinion. They want to be returned to their home countries where they believe they have a chance of getting out.
garage mahal said...
About what?
About everything.
And your silly attempt at excusemaking is pathetic.
creeley23: "everything he does seems calculated to win big in 2014 so he can really govern in his last two years."
Everything Obama does seems calculated to win big in 2014 so he can achieve something which will enable the Dems to win in 2016.
Everything he says sounds nice to the lo-info voters and MSM. They never study any issue so he gets away with lies, deceptions, and in action.
The economy and jobs - he never studied economics so it is not his issue.
Bad leader, bad president.
Brainfertilizer's Second Law:
The Progressive Agenda can only survive by maintaining and expanding the pool of low-information voters.
This statement on Guantanamo is just part of that effort.
Why not release them into Mexico? The Mexicans send their unwanted people to America. The Federal government sends their unwanted Arms to Mexico It's a dysfunctional convergence.
Honest Garage: "If we could just suspend the Constitution and let Barry fix everything we'd all be better off."
Something will change if the inmates start dying from their hunger strike.
I don't blame Obama for not following through on closing Gitmo. I am pretty sure he never gave it any serious thought, he knew that the promise would be loved by the left and their votes, money and enthusiasm would help get him into office.
Who I blame and have utter contempt for are the folks who, when Bush was in office, acted like Guantanamo was a serious moral issue. Now, crickets. Hacks.
I sometimes think Garage is just Ann using an alias to poke fun at the Krugmanite lunacy of the "progressives." After all, living in Madison must drive a normal person to concoct diverse intellectual survival mechanisms.
I sometimes think Garage is just Ann using an alias to poke fun at the Krugmanite lunacy of the "progressives." After all, living in Madison must drive a normal person to concoct diverse intellectual survival mechanisms.
Awesome take. About as good as your previous.
But, seriously, Barry didn't close Gitmo because he discovered to his horror that Bush's approach to the GWOT was correct and that his partisan attacks on Bush and McCain were demogoguery inapplicable to the real world. Pretty much like Garage. Say, do ya think GM's Barry's content advisor?
Let's remember, please, who is causing this entire problem.
It's not Bush. Or Obama. Or the necons. Or the liberals.
It's the terrorists. These are not a bunch of innocent goat herders picked up by the US and imprisoned. These are, at this stage, hardened terrorists who will kill you.
And they are clearly engaged in a strategy to get released. They want to be repatriated where, they believe, they have a chance of getting released. And, in some case, a chance to return to terror.
Why does this gasbag of a president even bother opening his mouth. He should just call a pres conference and just stand at the podium for an hour saying and doing nothing while the cameras take his picture, then disseminate them to the rest of the media outlets to make it look like he's done something grand and they did their job in reporting that he was present. That is basically the equivalent of what he is at this point. Persona non grata.
Marty said...
But, seriously, Barry didn't close Gitmo because he discovered to his horror that Bush's approach to the GWOT was correct and that his partisan attacks on Bush and McCain were demogoguery inapplicable to the real world.
Close.
I think the adults in DC (and I don't mean ValJar and Axelrod - they're his keepers) told him if he did it his way, the day would come when the crazies would hand him his ass.
dbp- I agree.
The thing that irks me is how easy it all was to solve when Bush was president. Close Gitmo! Be nice to Iran! Negotiate with North Korea! Cut the budget line by line!
Now Obama is President and it suddenly isn't so easy. Yet I don't see him ever being reflective about it.
It's easy to close Gitmo. You just build a new home out back for all the inmates. All you need is a backhoe.
Could this Gitmo pivot be a distraction from Obama's latest foreign policy blunder/humiliation WRT Syrian chemical weapons use?
We haven't discussed it here, but Obama has been caught bluffing about the "red line" which Syria must not cross with chemical weapons. But now Britain, France and Israel have confirmed Syria's use of those weapons, Obama has gone into full evasion mode that we need to investigate further (shades of Benghazi) to confirm.
This is terrible on so many levels.
So from when to when did he have 60 votes?
When was legislation even HINTED at that would make the question relevant?
Are you going to argue that Democrats were gung ho to close it?
Because, you know, history says otherwise.
It's amazing how the apparently idiotic Bush got shit done with way less than 60 Senators, but Obama couldn't adequately wipe his own ass with 60.
Why not release them into Mexico? The Mexicans send their unwanted people to America. The Federal government sends their unwanted Arms to Mexico It's a dysfunctional convergence.
Release them all to NYC, LA, SF, and Madison. The voters there LOVE them and all.
Called the Israelis liars, didn't he?
Now he has to see which side used it.
B0 = bumbling, stumbling, exiting the office.
Dem Senators up for reelection = hiding from or disowning the WH.
According to the WashingtonTimes article ScottM linked to, Congress did not order the president to keep Gitmo open. What it did was deny the DOJ funds to acquire a prison on the US mainland to replace Gitmo and the authority to transfer anyone incarcerated in Gitmo to a US mainland prison. That still left POTUS with full authority to close Gitmo had he wanted to.
garage: "So from when to when did he have 60 votes?"
Notice how Bush never had a republican majority of 60 senators (neither did Reagan or HWBush) but according to the left Reagan/HW/W were all totally and completely responsible for everything that happened during their tenure.
Everything. Even things that didn't happen.
LOL
Once again, setting new and "special" rules for how to judge Obama.
Just like jobs "saved or created", a startling new and ridiculous metric never before used to measure the economic performance of a US president.
I wonder why that is?
creeley: "We haven't discussed it here, but Obama has been caught bluffing about the "red line" which Syria must not cross with chemical weapons."
It's certainly being discussed outside the US where Obama's ridiculous posturing has been exposed for what it really is.
Iapetus: "That still left POTUS with full authority to close Gitmo had he wanted to."
Completely correct.
Very similar to how the republicans voted to give Obama complete discretion as to how to shift funds around to compensate for the "horrible" (minuscule) sequester based reduction of the increase in government spending.
Obama bravely and courageously said "no thanks" (which is just an alternate way of saying "present")
Obama likes to vote present, unless, of course, there are some viable babies who might survive an abortion in which case Obama made sure to come down on the side of "kill them".
Again, bravely and courageously.
Just like jobs "saved or created", a startling new and ridiculous metric never before used to measure the economic performance of a US president.
Fitting, as it came from a man who invented the never before used Office Of The President Elect.
What difference, at this point, does it make?
A president is in trouble when he’s forced to defend his relevancy, as Bill Clinton did 18 years ago, or to quote Mark Twain, as Barack Obama did Tuesday. “Rumors of my demise,” he said at a news conference , “may be a little exaggerated at this point.”
"Like Clinton in April 1995, Obama struggles against forces out of his control."
So maybe the Gitmo pivot is a new attempt for Obama to look like he is relevant and he is in control.
Though I don't see how he makes this one work either.
Of course the guy who uploaded to the TelePrompter those first-day-in-office "close Gitmo" remarks didn't have to worry about what to do with the detainees once they were turned loose.
And Obama didn't expect that he had to do anything other than occasionally read from the TelePrompter. He has since found out otherwise and it seems to annoy him.
If you were the israelis or iran would you bother believing the jugged ear jesus if your country's well being was on the line? They know a pussy when they see one and plan accordingly.
AprilApple said...
What do we do with the inmates?
That's a good question.
It is my understanding-someone else can confirm this for me-that Guantanomo technically isn't US soil and therefore doesn't come under our civil laws.
If we moved them here we would have to provide them with council and be forced, under law, to provide them with civil trials.
Three choices arise as far as I can see.
Keep em.
Kill em.
Let em go.
4th choice
a combination of all three.
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