–updated–
Dennis Blair has accepted “with regret” the request from Chas Freeman that his name be withdrawn from consideration as Obama’s top intel post:
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman’s decision with regret.
Swiftboating works. Point to the AIPAC crowd. Obama loses.
“If they withdraw his appointment prior to the conclusion of [Freeman’s formal vetting] that would be seen as abject caving in on people who are extreme partisans of Israel,” Nicholas Veliotes, a former Ambassador to Egypt, and one of 17 former diplomats who signed a letters supporting Freeman, said Tuesday before the withdrawal was announced. – Politico
I think eventually these politicians who have their noses buried up AIPAC’s ass are going to be on the wrong side of the issue. Israel’s shenanigans are getting old to the American people, and the new government over there is just going to make things worse.
In the meantime, this is going to hurt Obama unless he and Blair move quickly to place someone in the position that is not seen as a nod to the Israeli-firster crowd. I hate to use language like that, because it’s always been offensive to me, but swiftboating this guy before the vetting is done is unconscionable and is the reason even Geithner can’t fill his staff. But on national security the loss of someone like Freeman is going to be seen over there as a cave in. It’s going to be disheartening to the people who are hoping for real change in the region.
It’s also going to be red meat for the neocons to oppose him even more.
You got it. They’re dancing at the Weekly Standard.
That they let a guy indicted on espionage swiftboat their pick as chairman for the NIC is galling beyond words.
What the FUCK is Obama doing? How on EARTH can he and the Dems be allowing these cretinus bastards to set any agenda at all. First the guttless behavior with this IMPORTANT appointment, which didn’t even NEED Senate confirmation I believe. How about THIS crock of shit
” President Barack Obama speaks, accompanied by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, right, speaks during an unscheduled visit to a meeting of the Council of Chief State School officers, Tuesday, March 10, 2009, in Washington.
President Barack Obama called for tying teachers’ pay to students’ performance and expanding innovative charter schools Tuesday, embracing ideas that have provoked hostility from members of teachers unions.”
How about some kind of accountability for the stinking LAZY parents of these little darlins? My wife is a Teacher and she must deal with the abso-farking-lutly undisciplined, unsupervized progeny of this crop of ME,ME,ME’er parents. That NEVER check to see if their kid has any homework let alone DO it. That let their kid eat all the junk food they want, or better still send them off without breakfast OR lunch. Who NEVER come to a teacher parent conferance. etc. etc. etc.
And more of this charter school horseshit. THEY DON’T DO ANY BETTER THEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN TESTS.
Why is he flushinh his mandate down the crapper? Could someone PUUUUHLEAZE splain this to me?!
Sec
better lay off the caffeine. LOL
From Ben Smith @ Politico
Some pro-Israel types have begun to wonder whether this wasn’t a Pyrrhic victory, and Chas Freeman does his best to make it so with a scathing statement, printed just now by Laura Rozen.
Freeman places blame squarely on the “Israel Lobby”:
The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.
Full statement after the jump.
http://tinyurl.com/df3559
secularhumanizinevoluter says:
10 March 2009 at 7:27 pm
I heard the speech, too, and am really disappointed. As a teacher and staff development facilitator in the inner city for many years, this is so discouraging to me. No wonder the teacher retention rate in the cities is less than 50%. Blame the teachers for everything – it never stops. But I suppose it supplies a “simple” solution for a complicated issue that they have no real answers for. I thought I might hear things like building new community type schools so kids won’t have to attend dilapitated schools that are in need of much repair, more resources like computers in every classroom (teachers in my district only get around $200 dollars a year for supplies and materials – that’s a joke), more teachers for smaller class sizes so more attention can be given to individual students, more staff development opportunities to collaborate in best practices, or early childhood education for all. I can tell you I have personally spent at least $15,000 of my own money in my years of teaching – buying materials for my students that the district had no money for. (I couldn’t even get a class set of dictionaries when I first started teaching.) And many teachers I know of do this time and time again. We deal with students who have many problems and needs that are not taken care of at home and it is overwhelming to address these needs and get through the curriculum at the same time. Many times, because these needs are not addressed at home, there are behavior problems with the students that disrupt instruction. And he talks about merit pay? Merit pay has been studied and it doesn’t work unless he is talking about merit pay that is supplemental to teacher salary, not supplanting it. I think we are going backward, not forward. I believe more young people will opt out of teaching because it is just not worth it, especially in urban areas. The sad thing is there is hope there and many good kids, but these solutions are not really addressing the real needs and issues of the communities. As for the charter schools, many of the students end right back up in the public schools (public schools must take everyone by law) because they get expelled from charter schools. You don’t notice many charter schools in the suburbs – it’s usually in urban areas. The joke is with my colleagues, the suburbs must have all of the good teachers because their test scores are much higher than in urban areas! Now I’m not saying we can’t make improvements and changes, but to scapegoat teachers when they actually need MORE support and to offer fake solutions such as merit pay is just stupid and unreal.
lynnette speaks for many teachers ….so disappointing not to hear Obama address real change not to mention the real problems. I know this next statement will draw the wrath of some but sometimes I can’t help myself.Hillary would never approach education this way.
Lake Lady says:
10 March 2009 at 9:39 pm
lynnette speaks for many teachers ….so disappointing not to hear Obama address real change not to mention the real problems. I know this next statement will draw the wrath of some but sometimes I can’t help myself.Hillary would never approach education this way.
Lake Lady, I agree 100%. Hillary went to public schools. Obama did not. And his sister teaches at a charter school. This is not change we can believe in. And it certainly doesn’t give me hope. It’s very depressing. Oh well.
This only reinforces the feeling in the Muslim world that the United States cannot be a constructive party to resolving the conflict because the United States is unwilling to even LISTEN to, let alone tolerate, any view that is contrary to the will of the Israel First crowd.
American foreign policy toward the Middle East conflict always has been a bit of a joke. It remains so now.
Barack Obama can appear on Arab television a hundred times whispering sweet nothings. But today’s action speaks much louder than anything Obama can say.
No kidding, Mash, what a colossal collapse this was and what a horrible message it sends. Horrific leadership; none at all.
Mash writes: But today’s action speaks much louder than anything Obama can say.
A lesson I feel that Obama has yet to absorb.
It sucks to have finally started thinking maybe things really could change only to have the rug pulled out from under us again.
So like always the Dems will be good in small ways for the general populace but when it comes down to it, it’s buisness as usual.
lynnette says:
10 March 2009 at 8:21 pm
____
I hear what you’re saying, but the schools ARE a mess and need something to be done. My wife has been a teacher for 30 years and when our kids were ready for school she said no way she would put her son’s into the public system. She knew from the iside how bad it is. I’m not sure she would agree with Obama’s approach however.