Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

‘Obama Day’ Could Be Illinois’ First New Holiday In 40 Years – DNAinfo

The Illinois Legislature is considering creating a state holiday for former President Barack Obama. View Full Caption

Facebook/President Obama

CHICAGO If some state lawmakers have their way, former President Barack Obamas birthdaysoon will be aholiday in Illinois.

Three bills arebeing debated in the Illinois House and Senate that would honor Obama'sAug. 4 birthday.

The two House bills would create a legal holiday, which would close state offices and schools the Monday after the former president's birthday. Businesses would have the option of closing. The Senate bill lays out plans for acommemorative day that would not require any offices to close.

The House bills would create the first new state holiday in 40 years and would be the first time a living president was ever honored with a legal holiday in the state.

In his call for the holiday state Rep. Andr Thapedi (D-Ashburn) said other states honor presidents. Texas honors Lyndon B. Johnson and California honors Ronald Reagan. He said Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and part of Illinois history.

I thought those distinctions meant he should be honored hes basically an Illinoisan, Thapedi said Monday.

He introduced a similar bill last year, but it failed to move forward because Obama was still in office and the costs of closing state offices was estimated to be $3.2 million.

Thapedi said he thinks the bill has a better chance now that Obamas out of office, and he'sasked that the cost estimates be reassessed.

Recognizing fiscal constraints were under now, it would not be unreasonable to take those things into consideration, Thapedi said.

Gov. Bruce Rauner's office did notimmediately respond to questions about whether Rauner would support the proposal.

State Rep. Sonya Harper (D-Back of the Yards) has introduced a bill that copies Thapedis bill word for word.

She said she believed Obama was one of the greatest presidents of her lifetime and should be afforded the full honor of a state holiday.

Harper said she was unaware of any similarities ot Thapedi's bill and said she suspected they were both written by the same staffer at the Legislative Reference Bureau, which helps draft legislation for lawmakers.

She said the bills will be combined in the committee review process or one will move forward.

Illinois was the first state in the country to adopt Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1973.

Casmir Pulaski Day was instituted by the Legislature in 1977. Chicago closes city offices in recognition of the birthday of the Revolutionary War cavalry officer, but state offices do not close.

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'Obama Day' Could Be Illinois' First New Holiday In 40 Years - DNAinfo

Trump blames ‘Obama people’ for leaking details of calls with foreign leaders – New York Post


TPM
Trump blames 'Obama people' for leaking details of calls with foreign leaders
New York Post
President Trump is blaming Obama people for the embarrassing leaks of contentious private phone calls he's had with the leaders of Australia and Mexico. It's a disgrace that they leaked because it's very much against our country, Trump told Fox ...
Trump Accuses 'Obama People' Of Leaking Details Of His Calls With LeadersTPM
Trump Says White House Leaks Coming From Obama Admin HoldoversDaily Caller
Amid gush of White House leaks, Trump points his finger at 'Obama people'The Week Magazine
Fox News -Western Journalism
all 15 news articles »

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Trump blames 'Obama people' for leaking details of calls with foreign leaders - New York Post

Obama at play, &c. – National Review

I am somewhat amazed to see Woodmont Country Club in the news the national news, and possibly international news. This is a club outside Washington, D.C. I know it rather well. Barack Obama has been offered a membership there.

He likes his golf, Obama does. Thats one of the things I like about him. Early in his first term, I wrote a piece called Hail to the Golfer-in-Chief. (Ahem: It appears in this new collection, Digging In.) Obama was taking a lot of grief for his golf. He was taking it from Left and Right.

The Left didnt like it because golf, in their view, was a Republican thing, or a white thing. Why should this cool black Democratic president be playing this Ozzie-and-Harriet game?

The Right didnt like it because, they said, it was taking up too much of Obamas time. He was neglecting his duties. (That was fine with me, I tell you.)

So, I wrote an essay defending both golf and Obamas particular habit.

When it was bruited about that he was looking to join Woodmont, there was grumbling at the club. Woodmont is mainly a Jewish club, and some members objected to Obamas treatment of Israel. They were especially hot about Obamas treatment of Israel at the U.N. Obama left that country vulnerable, they thought.

Other members were high on Obama, and appalled at the grumbling. One member, a Democratic activist, went so far as to resign, splashily. He wrote a letter saying,

I can no longer belong to a community:

Where Intolerance is accepted,

Where History is forgotten,

Where Freedom of Speech is denied,

And where the nations first black president is disrespected.

He signed his letter, Stay Woke. Woke, in the current parlance, means awake to racial injustice.

Woodmont has offered Obama the missus, too a special membership, meaning they would not have to pay an initiation fee. They would have to pay merely dues and assessments.

I would like to say something about this first black president business. The letter-writer, the resigner, said that Woodmont was a place where the nations first black president is disrespected.

It could be that the anti-Obama members regard Obama as a president, and, moreover, a man: a man with certain views, a man with a record. It could be that they think his stance on Israel is lousy and disqualifying, quite apart from skin color.

And I think Obama would appreciate this: being considered a president, and a man, rather than a racial totem or symbol.

I have always had an advantage in my journalism, and in life, I think: and that is that I am absolutely un-intimidatable un-cowable on the subject of race. A big reason, I think, is that I grew up around black people. They were part and parcel of life. They were not exotic. They were you know, people.

Good and bad. Smart and dumb. Talented and untalented. Good-looking and ugly. Honest and dishonest. Tall and short.

You know, like people. People.

For many white people, black people are not quite people: They are symbols, or victims, or saints automatic racial saints. They are the Other. Clarence Thomas once complained that white people, too many of them, treat black people like dogs and cats.

If I were black, it would drive me absolutely nuts. It does anyway.

Last week, I was thinking about two of my colleagues, who are two of my favorite writers: Kevin Williamson and David French. One advantage they have is that they are absolutely un-intimidatable on the subject of poverty. They cannot be cowed.

One trick of the populist-nationalist Right is to say, Elitist! You have no idea how the other half lives. You have no idea about the poor and struggling. You live in a bubble. You go to your cocktail parties. Elitist!

Kevin is from Lubbock; David is from Georgetown not the neighborhood in Washington, D.C., but the town in Kentucky. (My ancestors, some of them, lived in Georgetown, D.C. It was a slum then. They couldnt wait to move out, and did.)

If you try that Elitist! stuff on them, they will laugh in your face, or worse.

We cannot go through life without generalizing. We cant think, talk, or write without generalizing, nor should we. But happy is he who regards people, basically, as individuals.

Received a note from a Democratic friend of mine a superb lawyer in D.C. She addressed the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court: If politics worked right, Democrats wouldnt fight this one (and Obamas nominee should have gotten a hearing and a vote). Poisonous place, federal Washington.

I sort of feel for the Democrats on this one. They want revenge for the inaction on Merrick Garland. At the same time, Neil Gorsuch is damn near unimpeachable. What glove can you lay on him?

Of course, you could have said that about Bork, and many did

Care for a little music? Here is my New York Chronicle, published in the just-issued New Criterion. I take up Robert Muczynski, Christian Gerhaher, William Bolcom, Wynton Marsalis, Vittorio Grigolo, and more.

A little language? To the passengers sitting in exit rows, a flight attendant ne stewardess gives a little speech. She ends with, Are you able and willing to assist in the event of an emergency? She then says, to each passenger, I need a verbal yes.

Its interesting, this word verbal. It used to mean related to speech written, oral, whatever. Now it seems to mean only oral. The flight attendant means, You cant nod your head or something. You have to say the word yes. Why doesnt she say I need an oral yes? Probably because the word oral has a vulgar connotation.

Im reminded of the word diction. It used to mean and surely still means, formally word choice. Somewhere along the line, it got equated to elocution or enunciation. In olden days, young ladies walked around with books on their heads, practicing their e-nun-ci-a-tion

On a plane the other day, I heard the chief flight attendant a senior woman say, The girls are getting ready to come through with a water walk.

Whoa. Girls. Age and sex have their privileges

Shall we have a correction? A correction of me? In a column the other week, I called Key West the southernmost point of the United States. Several readers wrote to say, Dont forget Hawaii! Dont forget Ka Lae!

I had. (Hawaii and Alaska always screwin us up )

Last week, I did a podcast with David French. For some reason, I mentioned Some Kind of Wonderful, the movie from 1987. A listener wrote to say, Out of all the important topics you guys discussed, I was most impressed by your knowing the movie Some Kind of Wonderful!

In a blogpost, I said, Oh, please: Every male my age has thought about Lea Thompson, Mary Stuart Masterson, or both for lo these 30 years. Trust me.

Then I did a tweet, about this blogpost and I mentioned Lea Thompson, using her Twitter handle. (Mary Stuart Masterson doesnt have one, apparently.)

After a few minutes, Lea tweeted me yes, she did. She said, Why, thank you.

You know how, years ago, when you met a personage Babe Ruth, Albert Schweitzer, Angie Dickinson you said, Im never going to wash my hand again? There must be a Twitter equivalent of that

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Obama at play, &c. - National Review

Man freed early by Obama now back in jail on another drug charge – KVUE.com

Katie Grovatt, KCEN 4:25 PM. CST February 05, 2017

US President Barack Obama speaks during his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois on January 10, 2017. / AFP / Nicholas Kamm (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

SAN ANTONIO - A San Antonio man whose life prison sentence was reduced by President Obama is now back in jail after authorities say he crashed his car into another vehicle while fleeing officers from another drug deal.

68-year-old Robert Gill was ordered by a federal magistrate to be held without bail on Friday pending a hearing later this month.

Gill was arrested in 1990 and sentenced to life for a cocaine and heroin distribution conspiracy. While he was in prison he studied law and petitioned the president for a second chance. Gill's sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2015.

According to a report by the San Antonio Express Newshe has been working as a paralegal at a San Antonio law firm.

He is now charged with possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

( 2017 KCEN)

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Man freed early by Obama now back in jail on another drug charge - KVUE.com

Trump: Leaked transcripts of Mexico, Australia calls ‘disgraceful’ – Fox News

PALM BEACH, Fla. President Trump on Saturday denounced the leaks of transcripts of his telephone conversations with leaders of Australia and Mexico as disgraceful and said his administration was searching very, very hard for the leakers.

Trump, speaking to Fox News, accused Obama people of giving news organizations embarrassing details of his recent tense phone conversations with his Australian and Mexican counterparts, and said that the holdovers from the Obama administration still serving on his White House and National Security Council staff were being replaced.

Its a disgrace that they leaked because its very much against our country, Trump said, without stating why he believed that career civil servants who work in Democratic and Republican administrations were the source of the leaks. Its a very dangerous thing for this country, he said.

Trump said that media reports of what appeared to be angry exchanges between him and the two foreign leaders had been mischaracterized, and insisted that he had positive relations with both countries and their leaders.

Meanwhile, hours before a federal judge in San Francisco turned down the Trump administrations request to reinstate travel restrictions on refugees and foreign travelers, President Trump defended his administrations travel ban, saying the temporary halt was needed while the administration reviewed vetting procedures to prevent people with bad intentions from entering the country.

I just want a safe country, and you cant have a safe country with open and weak bordersyou cant, he said.

Trump said that the FBI had informed him that the bureau had 1,000 investigations ongoing into potential terrorist threats and lacked sufficient manpower to pursue them all.

Finally, he disputed press reports which characterized the sanctions he imposed last week on Iran as weak and ineffective. He said that punishing Tehran for violating United Nations Security Council restrictions on ballistic missile testing was the right thing to do, and argued that the sanctions were already beginning to constrain Iranian aggression. Iran, he said, was trying to undermine and destabilize U.S. allies by exporting sensitive technology to countries around the world and that such aggressive conduct had to be countered. The sanctions were already working, he asserted. Have you noticed theyve been very quiet in the last two days?

Trump made these and other comments in a conversation with three journalists whom he had invited to join him after the 60th annual International Red Cross ball, a fundraiser for the charity that was held this year at his club, Mar-a-Lago.

In his first trip back to his home in Palm Beach since becoming president, Trump answered several questions on wide-ranging topics from this reporter, Christopher Ruddy, founder and chief of Newsmax Media, and Melanie Dickinson, president and publisher of the South Florida Business Journal, an online and print business publication. Trump and his wife Melania lingered on after the ball to mix with admirers and some of the estimated 800 Red Cross supporters attending the black-tie event at Mar-a-lago, which has become known as The Winter White House.

While wealthy supporters of the charity rubbed shoulders with one another and clustered around the table occupied by Trump and his wife, eager to congratulate him and take photos with First Couple, some 4,000 people turned out for an anti-Trump march in West Palm Beach. Hundreds of protesters made their way from Trump Tower in West Palm Beach to a staging area near Palm Beach on Bingham Island, and then to the entrance of the exclusive club, where they shouted anti-Trump slogans and yelled chants against the new administrations policies. Many of the protesters, most of whom were peaceful, carried placards criticizing Trump, his immigration and other policies, and several of his wealthy Cabinet nominees. The protest was among the largest, if not the largest, in recent Palm Beach county history.

Inside the huge ornate ballroom, Trump seemed particularly insistent on disputing the notion that his travel restrictions now being challenged by several courts were unpopular. Theyre very popular, he insisted. But, he added, he would have imposed them whether or not Americans approved of them. Im not doing it for popularity. Im doing it because our country is like a sieve for people coming in, he said.

He said that he had learned in his meetings with FBI officials that the bureau was having a difficult time staffing the more than 1,000 investigations it was conducting into potential threats to the country. Theres no manpower to do them.

Calls to FBI headquarters regarding the number of ongoing terror investigations were not returned on this Super Bowl Sunday. But last summer, James Comey, the FBI director, testified that the bureau had about 1,000 open terror-related investigations in 2016 and at least one in all of the 50 states. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who follows counter-terrorism efforts closely, confirmed that senior FBI officials have spoken of nearly 1,000 ongoing investigations. John Pistole, the former FBI deputy director, told Fox News last summer that the FBI lacked the resources and legal authority to maintain investigations on everybody they talk to, he said. The FBI had perpetrators of the terror attacks carried out in Orlando, San Bernardino, and Boston under surveillance for a time, but closed out their inquiries before the attacks.

Trump said Saturday night that many Americans did not realize the danger posed by Americas open borders and insufficient vetting. You dont realize it, he said.

However, groups helping asylum seekers, refugees, and other civil and human rights groups point out that no Americans have been killed in domestic terror attacks by asylum seekers and refugees from the seven Middle Eastern countries with majority Muslim populations who would be barred from entering the U.S. for 120 days while the administration reviews its immigration and vetting policies.

Under Trumps executive order, refugees from Syria would be permanently barred, exclusions whose legality several civil rights and civil liberties experts and groups have challenged. They also argue that political refugees are already among the most heavily vetted of all immigrants.

Im doing this because our country is like a sieve for people coming in, Trump said.

One former CIA official said that while the administrations implementation of its executive order was clumsy, the concerns behind it are real. But the constitutionality of the executive order seems headed for a Supreme Court challenge.

The FBI also did not return calls for comment Sunday on whether it was conducting an investigation into the leaking of transcripts of the president's telephone calls with foreign leaders. While White House press spokesman Sean Spicer recently said that the president had asked his team to to look into this because those are very serious implications," Trump had not previously discussed his own view of the embarrassing leaks. His comments Saturday underscored his concern about what has become widespread early on in his administration the unauthorized distribution of material highlighting numerous exaggerations and false statements by him and senior members of his White House and other incidents that seem to reflect incompetence or inexperience.

Trump seemed particularly anxious to reinforce his spokesmans descriptions of his conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico as candid," but respectful. Spicer noted that both leaders have disputed some of the details as reported.

Based on the transcripts, the Washington Post and several media outlets, for instance, reported that Trump hung up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after an angry discussion of a refugee swap negotiated by former President Obama. In a recent interview, Turnbull called his discussion with Trump frank but said that Trump had agreed to abide by the refugee swap negotiated by former President Barack Obama.In one interview, he said it had been a "good week" for Australia.

In an earlier call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump apparently threatened to send the U.S. military to Mexico to stop drug cartels -- according to a transcript published by a Mexican news organization and the Associated Press. The White House later said the comments were intended to be lighthearted.

Judith Miller, a Fox News contributor, is an award-winning writer and author, and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. The author of several books, her latest is "The Story: A Reporter's Journey" (Simon & Schuster, April 7, 2015) now available in paperback. Follow her on Twitter @JMFreeSpeech.

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Trump: Leaked transcripts of Mexico, Australia calls 'disgraceful' - Fox News