Results tagged “presidentobama”

After former mayor Rudy Giuliani remarked on Good Morning America yesterday, "We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama," newly anointed GMA host George Stephanopoulos was criticized for not calling him on it. Stephanopoulos later admitted, via a blog post, that he made a mistake.

Yesterday the president of Weatherproof clothing company, Freddie Stollmack, defiantly declared he would not be taking down his company's ad campaign — which includes President Obama on their billboard in Times Square. The unauthorized image shows Obama in one of the company's coats during a visit to the Great Wall in China.

President Obama used his weekly address to discuss the Christmas Day incident where a Nigerian national allegedly tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit. And he said, for the first time, that suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may be linked to Al Qaeda, "It appears that he joined an affiliate of Al Qaeda, and that this group — Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America." [Video after the jump]

After being attacked by critics in the wake of the thankfully unsuccessful attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight last week, the White House addressed critics head on. Communications director Dan Pfeiffer posted a response—especially towards former Vice President Dick Cheney—on the White House website yesterday saying that President Obama has acknowledged the U.S. is "at war. The difference is this: President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and - unlike the last Administration - we are not at war with a tactic ('terrorism'), we at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered." Further:

The subprime mortgage meltdown and the wave of foreclosures that swept across the city and the nation continue to put New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes — despite a federal policy drafted to protect them. The Times reports that in the ten months since President Obama debuted his $75 billion plan to keep as many as four million Americans from being forced out of their homes due to foreclosure, only 31,000 homeowners have been able to negotiate permanent new mortgages. And in the city, where 20,000 homeowners faced foreclosure this year, lenders have offered new or trial mortgages to just 3 percent of homeowners who sought help.

With President Obama admitting that "systemic failure" allowed a Nigerian national on a terror watch list and allegedly attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight last week, the knives are out. Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Politico, "[W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe. Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society.”

Yesterday, President Obama spoke again about the thankfully failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight last week—and this time he was more forceful in his criticism of federal agencies' "mix of human and systemic failures" to address the matter. The NY Times reports, "The president was told during a private briefing on Tuesday morning while vacationing here in Hawaii that the government had a variety of information in its possession before the thwarted bombing that would have been a clear warning sign had it been shared among agencies, a senior official said."

ABC News showed photographs of the underwear worn by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab while he allegedly tried to destroy a Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit last week. ABC News explains, "The first photo... shows the slightly charred underpants with the bomb packet still in place... The bomb packet is a six-inch long container of the high-explosive chemical PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams. A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001. The underpants bomb would have been one and a half times as powerful."

Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island), who is a ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, has unleashed a torrent of criticism towards the Obama administration regarding its handling of the alleged attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight that landed in Detroit on Christmas Day. He told WCBS 2, "I'm disappointed it's taken the president 72 hours to even address this issue. Basically nobody, the president, the vice president, the attorney general, nobody except Secretary Napolitano has come out. And she said yesterday everything worked well."

After vowing to use every procedural roadblock at their disposal to delay a final vote on the health care overhaul bill, Senate Republicans finally gave up and headed home for Christmas, hopefully in time to beat the blizzard spanking middle America. With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the Senate, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (read it here) passed with a 60-39 vote along party lines this morning. Beginning at 7:05 a.m., Senators began casting their aye or nay votes, and when Biden came to ailing Robert Byrd, the 92-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, he said, "Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye!"

Mayor Bloomberg has implemented a controversial report card system for the city's teachers and schools and he's pushing restaurants to display their cleanliness grades on their windows — but he has no interest in grading the president. As a guest on CNN's "State of the Union" yesterday, the Mayor declined to issue a letter grade to President Obama. "I'd give him a pretty high grade," he said, adding that "[f]or a new president, he's in a very tough time" with issues including the war in Afghanistan, a "partisan," and the economy.

After saying on 60 Minutes last night, "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama met with many of those fat cats at the White House today. Obama wants bankers to support his administration's financial industry reforms.

Today, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize from the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway. The committee's decision had set off controversy, because Obama hasn't even completed a year in his presidency—something that he acknowledged in October, calling the prize "as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century." In his remarks today, Obama struck a similar tone, "I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations - that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice."

Six-year-old Jasmina Anema, who has been suffering from leukemia, headed to Washington D.C. last week to attend President Obama's pardoning of the White House Turkey and meet Obama himself. However, she fell ill and wasn't responsive, requiring her to be admitted to Children's National Medical Center. Happily, this week, Jasmina was feeling much better and met President Obama on Wednesday.

President Obama outlined his plans for the war in Afghanistan during speech given at West Point, saying that 30,000 more U.S. troops would head to the region next year and, conditions permitting, withdrawal will begin 18 months later, "These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan."

The report says, "The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism." According to the NY Times, "The committee report, prepared at the request of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the committee’s Democratic chairman, concludes unequivocally that in mid-December 2001, Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were at the cave complex, where Mr. bin Laden had operated previously during the fight against Soviet forces. The new report suggests that a larger troop commitment to Afghanistan might have resulted in the demise not only of Mr. bin Laden and his deputy but also of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban. Mullah Omar, who also fled to Pakistan in 2001, has overseen the resurgence of the Taliban."

The White House released a photograph showing State Dinner crashing couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi meeting President Obama. The Washington Post reports, "The security breach has caused hand-wringing inside the White House, bewilderment among Tuesday night's guests -- and late on Friday, prompted an apology from the Secret Service." Secret Service director Mark Sullivan said the agency was "deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the State Dinner."

Last night, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama held their first state dinner at the White House. According to Politico, the "first couple applied their formal-but-comfortable style to a social event with international implications," with the President toasting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a giant tent on the White House lawn, "Mr. Prime Minister, today we worked to fulfill our duty — bring our countries closer together than ever before. Tonight, under the stars, we celebrate the spirit that will sustain our partnership — the bonds of friendship between our people."

Earlier this year, we were moved by the plight of little Jasmina Anema, a 6-year-old with leukemia who needed a bone marrow transplant. While she is still fighting the diseases, Jasmina is having a big week—not only did she reunite with Rihanna on Monday, she is scheduled to meet President Obama today, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

John Brek, the former NJ airport security guard who was accused of threatening President Obama last month, was released today after serving 29 days in the Newark county jail for harassment. Brek was interviewed by CBS 2 for "about 15 minutes" after he was released, and denied the threat while lamenting his time in jail: "I wouldn't wish it on nobody...You can't sleep, can't eat. I lost a tremendous amount of weight. Trying to sit in that 4-by-7 room and rock yourself to sleep, wondering what they were saying about you on the outside." At least he lost some weight?

The Newark Airport private security guard who was overheard discussing "how someone could shoot the president through a hole in a fence at the airport" was sentenced to 30 days in jail today. John Brek had been initially charged with making terroristic threats but pleaded guilty to a lesser charges of harassment last week; the Star-Ledger reports, "They represent a drastic reduction from the original felony charges Brek faced: making terroristic threats and possessing a rifle stolen from Alabama; and possessing hollow-point bullets." Since he has been held in jail since last month, Brek is to be released today.

Last night, former CNN personality Lou Dobbs appeared on Bill O'Reilly Fox News program to discuss his departure from the cable news network. Dobbs blamed the new guy in the White House—and how CNN doesn't want to rock the boat, "You know, I discern more of a difference between then, which was under the Bush administration whom I was criticizing, and now, when it is the Obama administration and an entirely different tone was taken."

The Daily News' Elizabeth Benjamin reports that City Comptroller Bill Thompson's name is "being floated" for various positions, including Senator. Rep. Jose Serrano says, "Billy Thompson obviously is the kind of public servant who not only who serves the public well but has proven he doesn't need a lot of money to do well in an election. He would be a formidable candidate statewide anytime." And even though President Obama personally asked other pols not to run against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a "senior New York Democrat" tells the News, "The presumption is that a White House that didn't really show strong support for Bill Thompson for mayor in this environment couldn't do that to him twice."

A House Republican joined 219 Democrats to vote for the landmark health care reform bill last night in the House of Representatives, enabling the bill to pass 220 votes to 215. Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan), who has"> introduced national health insurance in every Congress since taking office 1955, said, "It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it."

After the U.S. Department of Labor announced that October's unemployment rate was 10.2%, one thing that was left unsaid was the number of people who have been unemployed so long they've given up looking for work, not to mention the people who are working part-time but would rather be in full-time jobs. According to the NY Times, "In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982."

The oh-so-close mayoral race continues to be thorn in many Democrats' side—and many are bitter. State Senator Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan) tells the NY Times, “Bill Thompson was always closer than people thought, and on our side, if people had been behind him more, there would have been more checks, more endorsements, more attention, and that might have made the difference. It really is disgraceful that a lot of people in the Democratic Party stayed home or kept their checkbooks closed."

President Obama officially declared swine flu a national emergency. He signed a proclamation which, according to a White House announcement, "enhances the ability of our nation's medical treatment facilities to handle a surge in H1N1 patients by allowing, as needed, the waiver of certain standard federal requirements on a case-by-case basis."

Yesterday, a 55-year-old NJ man who works as a security guard at Newark Liberty International Airport was arrested for allegedly making threats to President Obama. The Star-Ledger reports that two airport workers notified the authorities after John Brek, employed by a private company, apparently "made about Obama on Tuesday afternoon" which then led to a "predawn raid yesterday" at Brek's Linden home.

Updated: Now WCBS 2 reports says it was a Newark Liberty International worker (not a former NJ state trooper) who was arrested last night for making threats against President Obama. "The nature of the threat is unknown. According to sources, the employee was arrested in his New Jersey home after a co-worker alerted authorities that the suspect made threatening remarks about President Obama. At some point after learning of the threat, law enforcement officials searched the home and found several weapons." It's unclear whether the threats were related to Obama's visit to NYC yesterday and NJ today.

President Barack Obama did in fact mention Democratic candidate for mayor, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, during last night's Democratic fundraiser: "Our great city comptroller, our candidate for mayor, my friend Billy Thompson is in the house." And that was it. Even Thompson himself, when asked if he thought it was an endorsement, said, "No. Do you consider that an endorsement?" (See for yourself—video is below.)