Josh Rogin reports on the non-progress in restoring the non-peace talks:
Special Envoy George Mitchell is back in the U.S. after a tour through the Middle East that included stop in Qatar, Egypt and Jordan. No progress reported on saving the peace talks and the key meeting of the Arab League where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will speak has been postponed until Friday. Clinton phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend.
[State Department spokesman P.J.] Crowley couldn’t and therefore didn’t answer persistent questions coming from one press corps member seeking to know when was the last time the U.S. failed to back up Israel at the U.N. The questioner was ostensibly referencing reports that the administration was trying to convince the Israelis to extend the settlement freeze by promising to veto any future attacks on Israel in international fora. “I’m not sure that is a question that can possibly be answered,” Crowley said.
Actually, reports during the Obami’s temper tantrum over housing permits in Jerusalem suggested that the administration was threatening not to veto such resolutions in the future. So we actually did have such a situation in March. But the Obami said they were “confused” and couldn’t manage to veto a statement singling out Israel that surely would have been vetoed under the Bush and Clinton administrations.
So to put this in context, the administration is trying to lure Bibi into extending a freeze with the promise not to do (refrain from anti-Israel vetoes) what previously would never have been done — and therefore would never have been considered a bargaining chip. You can understand why Bibi is not jumping at the offer.
I’ve been relatively absent from Contentions lately because I really have nothing new to add to what I have been saying for months and why just write more of the doom and gloom that even I find tiresome? Whether some of us have been right or not is, at the present moment, irrelevant. McCain cannot do anything to help a campaign that is bordering on what could be close to an historic loss for him and his party. This finanical mess overwhelms everything else. There’s simply no strategy, clever ad, debate sound bite or Obama scandal that will change the present dynamics. Under an incumbent of the same party, parties and their candidates do not even come close to victory when the stock market loses over twenty percent of its value in a week–and, as of today, with no end in sight. I don’t mean to suggest that McCain and Republicans should give up. Of course not. They have to continue the good fight, but it’s more for “the record” than pulling out a victory. Let us hope that Obama and the Democrats will have sobered up once they’re in office.
Jenny from the Yeshiva should just re-title this daily diatribe “Jenny form the Yeshiva’s Top Ten Racist Countdown”. Disgusting bigotry.
Why not include the fact that 72% CEOS fear Obama in stump speech somewhere?
99% of CEOs are sliced from the same loaf of white bread. Useless, racist, and bad for our health. That’s why.
This is why character and philosophy matter. We are in this mess primarily from the loosening of mortgage requirements. ACORN was at its core, it worked to change the mindset at Fannie and Freddie, and then the democratic politicians worked to keep regulators away from them. Who was an ACORN activist. One Mr. Barack Obama.
Interesting, of the two major issues over the last few years – the surge and now the mortgage meltdown – who missed them both, badly. And in fact who actually helped one to fester and spin out of control. The One.
There are some conspiracy theorists out there who would go even further to suggest that ACORN, with their Alinsky roots, did this solely to foment crisis in the financial sector in order to bring about a profound change in the order of our society. I think that is a stretch, but the Dow is down 600 to open, and the rescue has not dented the credit freeze one bit, which was the problem in the first place.
And Sandra, you are the racist based upon the comment you just wrote. Why wouldn’t 70% of CEO not want Obama. Obama does not believe in the capitalist business model. He is a socialist/communist.
Sandra, you are a joke. Just accuse people of racism whenever they make a good point. There is documentation behind all of the issues raised here, but there is no documentation of racism, except for in your own head. This website has set a high standard for disputing Obama’s ideology, record, and judgement, but never having based any of it on his race. Could it be that, in overzealously accusing others of racism without proof, you reveal yourself to be the racist?
It’s been interesting to see how lexical analysis software indicates that Ayers is the ghost writer for Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” book. Cashill has an interesting article on the matter:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html
Jem, has it ever occurred to you that the ’72% of CEOs who fear Obama’ that you are referring to are those who collectively screwed up the enterprises they were supposed to manage (and are afraid of well-deserved retribution)? The BS/Bluff/Golden Parachute culture of plunder and lies has become pervasive in Wall Street since the days of the ‘golden boys’ like Ivan Boiesky,
1. Whatever Biden’s earmarks are, this much is true, New Jersey received the least in earmarks per capita of any state, Alaska finished first.
2. How about the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, authored by the architect of McCain’s economic policy, Phil Gramm, which allowed for the debt swaps?
3. Doesn’t it occur to you that perhaps he thought Ayers was reformed because he was on the board? If he wasn’t reformed then why did McCain confidant Annenberg put him on the board in the first place? I’m not sure why apologies are in order for this. The insinuation of the association keeps being made that it was centered on the terrorist activities of Ayers, activities which were ancient history when Obama associated with him. His associations with Ayers were a) minimal, and b) acceptable, as in he never did anything wrong Ayers, other than according to people like yourselves, know him.
4. McCain’s ad is run for the purpose of being self-enriching. Should that make us beware of him as well?
5. Your blog offers innuendo and not fact. Your suggestion that ACORN has done something wrong when all they did was follow the law, belies your intent, which is to smear, not inform.