Right-wing ‘lies’ force Obama adviser out
September 14, 2009
The White House environmental adviser Van Jones, a towering figure in the environmental movement, has resigned after weeks of controversy stemming from his past activism.
”On the eve of historic fights for health-care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Mr Jones, the special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight on Saturday. ”They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”
He continued: ”I have been inundated with calls – from across the political spectrum – urging me to ‘stay and fight’. But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.”
Mr Jones issued two public apologies in recent days, one for signing a petition that questioned whether Bush administration officials ”may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war” and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the Administration.
A Republican Congressman, Mike Pence, called on Mr Jones to resign on Friday, saying in a statement: ”His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate.” Senator Christopher Bond wrote in an open letter: ”Can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?”
The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Friday that Mr Jones ”continues to work for the Administration” – but he did not state that the adviser enjoyed the full support of President Barack Obama.
Mr Jones had worked for the White House Council on Environmental Quality since March. He was a civil-rights activist before turning his focus to environmental and energy issues.
Pentagon chief: Time in Afghanistan short
July 19, 2009
After eight years, US-led forces must show progress in Afghanistan by next year to avoid perceptions that the conflict has become unwinnable, the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has said in a sharp critique of the war effort.
Cheney slammed over ‘secret counter terrorism program’
July 13, 2009
Democrats have lashed out at former vice-president Dick Cheney, accusing him of abusing his power, amid reports he ordered the CIA to withhold information from Congress about a secret counter-terrorism program.
Lawmakers vowed to hold hearings on the nature of the alleged top secret program and efforts to keep members of the US legislature in the dark.
John Stewart Discusses the Right Wing Media’s Outrage Over Wanda Sykes Comments, Yet Still Defend Torture
May 12, 2009
The mass hysteria from the right rolled in overnight, just two days after Wanda Sykes appeared at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and gave Rush Limbaugh a taste of his own medicine. Much like when Limbaugh would gleefully sing “Barack the Magic Negro” on a daily basis or when he rabidly, and brutally ripped into Michael J. Fox and his illness – Sykes decided to take it to the next level in her digs aimed at Rush.
Cheney: ‘Torture’ techniques kept US safe
May 11, 2009
Former US vice-president Dick Cheney says intelligence extracted from tough interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda militants had saved “perhaps hundreds of thousands” of US lives.
“No regrets. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do,” he said on CBS television arguing that techniques decried by critics as torture were essential to break the resistance of captured extremists.
Obama picks Egypt for Muslim address
May 10, 2009
Barack Obama will make his long-awaited address to Muslims in Egypt on June 4, accelerating his bid to mend the US image in the Islamic world from an epicentre of Arab civilisation.
The speech, fulfilling an Obama campaign promise, will focus on how Americans and Muslims abroad can secure the “safety and security” of their children in a more hopeful future, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Robot soldiers more fact than fiction
May 6, 2009
The world is on the brink of a “robotics revolution” in military combat that will have profound social, psychological, political and ethical effects, says a leading US defence analyst.
Peter Singer, who headed Barack Obama’s defence policy team during last year’s presidential campaign, said yesterday that the use of robots for fighting war was growing exponentially.
Clinton vows to freeze pirate assets
April 15, 2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has unveiled a four-point plan to fight piracy that calls for prosecution and freezing pirates’ assets.
The United States seeks to work with the international community to “explore ways to track and freeze pirate assets”, Clinton told reporters, adding Washington was determined to make sure “states take responsibility for prosecuting and imprisoning captured pirates.
Obama Eases Restrictions On Travel To Cuba
April 13, 2009
President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island.
Obama adviser declares millions
April 6, 2009
Lawrence Summers, the top economic adviser to the US President, Barack Obama, earned millions over the past year as managing director of the hedge fund D. E. Shaw Group and through speaking fees, some from financial institutions now at the centre of the Government’s rescue program.
