Carter says Secretary Rice "not telling truth"
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of not telling the truth about warnings she said her department gave Carter not to speak to Hamas before a Middle East trip.
The State Department has said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, issued the warning before Carter, a veteran of Middle East diplomacy, went on his trip last week.
Rice said in Kuwait on Tuesday: “We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contact with Hamas.”
“President Carter has the greatest respect for … Rice and believes her to be a truthful person. However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true,” a statement issued by the Carter center in Atlanta said on Wednesday.
“No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him (Carter) to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President (Bashar) Assad or leaders of Hamas,” it said.
It said Carter attempted to call Rice before making the trip and a deputy returned his call since Rice was in Europe.
“They had a very pleasant discussion for about 15 minutes, during which he never made any of the negative or cautionary comments described above. He never talked to anyone else,” the statement said.
Carter had already on Monday, in an interview with national Public Radio, described as “absolutely false” any suggestion he had been warned not to meet Hamas.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, is viewed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
“The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we certainly told President Carter that we did not think that meeting with Hamas was going to help the Palestinians,” Rice said Tuesday while attending a conference in Kuwait.
Carter, who met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria over the weekend, is trying to draw the Islamist group into peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
But Rice and other senior U.S. officials are concerned that Carter’s meeting could confuse U.S.-brokered peace talks already moving at a slow pace between Abbas and Olmert.
Hamas won a 2006 election and briefly formed a unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It seized control of Gaza from Abbas’ secular Fatah faction in fighting in June.
(Editing by David Storey)
Whatever, Jimmah. You lack credibility after visiting Hugo and and those who hate America. You always come down on the side of the enemy. You take the word of Hamas over Israel, who provides food and electricity for the electors of a terror organization. You are nothing but a Hamas shill and senile Jew hater. You are the WORST PRESIDENT EVER. Even Clinton and Barack Hussein dont meet our enemies publically…
CPUSA (Communist Party USA) 2008 Electoral Policy
The Communist Party USA views the 2008 elections as a tremendous opportunity to defeat the policies of the right-wing Republicans and to move our country in a new progressive direction.
The record turnout in the Democratic Presidential primary races shows that millions of voters, including millions of new voters, are using this election to bring about real change. We wholeheartedly agree with them.
While we do not endorse any particular candidates, we do endorse and join in the anti-Bush/anti-right wing sentiments that are driving so many people to activism.
The fact that the Democratic frontrunners are an African American and a woman speaks volumes on how far the country has come. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has attracted large numbers of supporters, especially women. Other Democratic contenders presented some excellent proposals to reverse the devastation caused by the Bush administration’s policies.
Barack Obama’s campaign has so far generated the most excitement, attracted the most votes, most volunteers and the most money. We think the basic reason for this is that his campaign has the clearest message of unity and progressive change, while having a real possibility for victory in November.
As we see it, however, this battle is bigger than the Democrats and Republicans, even though those parties are the main electoral vehicle for most voters today. Our approach is to focus on issues and movements that are influencing candidates and parties.
We will work with others to defeat the Republican nominee and to end right-wing control of the new Congress.
The activism growing out of this election will help guarantee a progressive mandate no matter who is elected. It is critical to our country’s renewal and future.
We think this election is a great opportunity to bring an early withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. It can mean job creation and relief for those who are losing their homes or unable to pay their bills.
This election can set the stage to advance the interests of working people; of those excluded because of race, gender, sexual orientation and immigration status.
This election can begin to turn the tide: it can help bring universal health care, save the environment and start the restoration of our democratic rights. This election can strengthen democracy for all.
In the long run, we see the need for an independent “people’s party” — an electoral party that will unite labor and all democratic forces. We also are working for a political system and government whose priority is to watch the backs of working families, not fill the pockets of the corporate fat cats. Our slogan, “people before profits” and our goal of “Bill of Rights socialism” say it all.
They make no bones about the fact that the Communists are in line with Democrats and their supporters, and the Democrats and their supporters are in line with the Communists!
Commie link, dont click, its posted because I have to source the article…
AL GORE FAKES IT
Ok global warming cultists – Al Gore fans – you really need to sit down on this one. We don’t want you to get too upset. This is about his Oscar winning film on global warming “An Inconvenient Truth.” There’s a scene in that movie that shows the Antarctic ice shelf breaking up and virtually disintegrating. The problem is that wasn’t ice. That was Styrofoam. ABC News is reporting that Al Gore took that footage from the fictional movie “The Day After Tomorrow” and used it in his documentary. Way to go Al. That ice is just about as fake as you are.
Before we go on this day after Earth Day stuff … you will be interested in knowing that only about 35% of the people in this country are all that concerned about global warming. That is about the same percentage as about 20 years ago. At least our collective ignorance hasn’t increased all that much on this issue.
And while we’re learning that Al Gore used Styrofoam in his movie to depict his dream of melting ice caps, here we have some sort of think tank in the UK saying that climate change (the newest term for global warming) could lead to centuries of world war. Read into the story and you’ll find that the chief author of the report from what is termed a “defense think tank” is also the head of an environmental group. These people have an investment in so-called “climate change.” When we all realize that this climate change is part of a normal cycle that has been going on for millions of years what are the environmental groups going to do to raise money?
AL GORE FAKES IT
Ok global warming cultists – Al Gore fans – you really need to sit down on this one. We don’t want you to get too upset. This is about his Oscar winning film on global warming “An Inconvenient Truth.” There’s a scene in that movie that shows the Antarctic ice shelf breaking up and virtually disintegrating. The problem is that wasn’t ice. That was Styrofoam. ABC News is reporting that Al Gore took that footage from the fictional movie “The Day After Tomorrow” and used it in his documentary. Way to go Al. That ice is just about as fake as you are.
Before we go on this day after Earth Day stuff … you will be interested in knowing that only about 35% of the people in this country are all that concerned about global warming. That is about the same percentage as about 20 years ago. At least our collective ignorance hasn’t increased all that much on this issue.
And while we’re learning that Al Gore used Styrofoam in his movie to depict his dream of melting ice caps, here we have some sort of think tank in the UK saying that climate change (the newest term for global warming) could lead to centuries of world war. Read into the story and you’ll find that the chief author of the report from what is termed a “defense think tank” is also the head of an environmental group. These people have an investment in so-called “climate change.” When we all realize that this climate change is part of a normal cycle that has been going on for millions of years what are the environmental groups going to do to raise money?
Trans States planes grounded because of missed inspections
ST. LOUIS (Map, News) – Federal airline regulators said Wednesday that 24 jets operated by commuter airline company Trans States Airlines Inc. were grounded because they do not meet safety standards.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said the airline reported the problem Tuesday and the aircraft were being checked.
Trans States spokesman Bill Mishk said 45 flights had been canceled by Wednesday evening because of the problem. He estimated that all the planes would be checked and back in service by Thursday night.
The airline had not properly checked an electrical switch that controls steering of the nose wheel. The switches must be inspected every 6,000 flight hours or 36 months, Cory said. The airline discovered the problem during a self-audit as it prepared for federal inspections, Cory said.
Misck said the inspections were missed because of problems with a software program that notified mechanics when inspections should be made. He said the program caught inspections that were due at 36 months, but seemed to miss them when they were due after 6,000 hours of flight time.
“It’s a glitch in software,” he said.
Trans States operates more than 300 flights a day with service to 46 cities in 25 states. Trans States operates flights under the names AmericanConnection, United Express and US Airways Express.
At least three other companies fly the Embraer jets that Trans States grounded, according to the companies’ annual reports.
A spokesman for Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group said it is in compliance with the FAA order and has not grounded any of its jets. Representatives from ExpressJet Holdings and Republic Airways Holdings did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday evening.
First, they misspell the name of TSA’s PR man, then they say TSA doesn’t meet safety standards. The airline self disclosed because safety is the number one consideration. This should be obvious as the carrier grounded it’s own fleet, at it’s own expense, and to the detriment of a slowing economy. The FAA is spiraling out of control, so it appears that rather than deal with implacable civil servants, the company did what it had to do without involving the “helpful” folks from the government.
I have have it on pretty good authority that the government would like to see the number of 121 operating certificates reduced in the coming decade. And that’s a shame-it was the government who handed out slots at the nations busiest airports to anyone that asked, resulting in delay programs that cascade through out the country. The government didn’t bother to check with the controllers who would be working these slots, who would have told them that they were creating delays and cancels. Now we have arrived at a point where our Class B airports are perennial ground stops and delay programs. Further, the government does nothing to dispel the myth that delays, cancellations, and travel interruptions, are largely the fault of the carriers. That notion is on display in this poorly written article from the ASSociated Press…
Trans States planes grounded because of missed inspections
ST. LOUIS (Map, News) – Federal airline regulators said Wednesday that 24 jets operated by commuter airline company Trans States Airlines Inc. were grounded because they do not meet safety standards.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said the airline reported the problem Tuesday and the aircraft were being checked.
Trans States spokesman Bill Mishk said 45 flights had been canceled by Wednesday evening because of the problem. He estimated that all the planes would be checked and back in service by Thursday night.
The airline had not properly checked an electrical switch that controls steering of the nose wheel. The switches must be inspected every 6,000 flight hours or 36 months, Cory said. The airline discovered the problem during a self-audit as it prepared for federal inspections, Cory said.
Misck said the inspections were missed because of problems with a software program that notified mechanics when inspections should be made. He said the program caught inspections that were due at 36 months, but seemed to miss them when they were due after 6,000 hours of flight time.
“It’s a glitch in software,” he said.
Trans States operates more than 300 flights a day with service to 46 cities in 25 states. Trans States operates flights under the names AmericanConnection, United Express and US Airways Express.
At least three other companies fly the Embraer jets that Trans States grounded, according to the companies’ annual reports.
A spokesman for Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group said it is in compliance with the FAA order and has not grounded any of its jets. Representatives from ExpressJet Holdings and Republic Airways Holdings did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday evening.
First, they misspell the name of TSA’s PR man, then they say TSA doesn’t meet safety standards. The airline self disclosed because safety is the number one consideration. This should be obvious as the carrier grounded it’s own fleet, at it’s own expense, and to the detriment of a slowing economy. The FAA is spiraling out of control, so it appears that rather than deal with implacable civil servants, the company did what it had to do without involving the “helpful” folks from the government.
I have have it on pretty good authority that the government would like to see the number of 121 operating certificates reduced in the coming decade. And that’s a shame-it was the government who handed out slots at the nations busiest airports to anyone that asked, resulting in delay programs that cascade through out the country. The government didn’t bother to check with the controllers who would be working these slots, who would have told them that they were creating delays and cancels. Now we have arrived at a point where our Class B airports are perennial ground stops and delay programs. Further, the government does nothing to dispel the myth that delays, cancellations, and travel interruptions, are largely the fault of the carriers. That notion is on display in this poorly written article from the ASSociated Press…
Barack Obama: Campaigning with a message of hope
By Caren Bohan
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) – Barack Obama’s rapid rise from relative obscurity toward winning the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. president hit another bump when he lost to rival Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania.
Obama’s defeat on Tuesday in the state’s nominating contest slowed his momentum, but he still holds the lead in delegates who will decide the party’s nominee to run against Republican John McCain in the November presidential election.
Just four years after he burst onto the national political scene with a keynote speech at the Democratic Party convention, the questions for those deciding whether to support Obama have been mostly about his relative inexperience.
Is the 46-year-old first-term senator who would be the first black U.S. president just a “phenomenon” desired by a war-weary nation eager for a fresh face or does he have what it takes to be an effective president?
Obama cast his scant time on the national political scene as an advantage, saying it meant his hope and ideals had not been compromised. His rousing oratory and can-do message struck a chord early with the public, drawing large crowds and enthusing young voters.
Doubts over whether voters were ‘ready’ for a black president diminished as he steadily chipped away at Clinton’s large early lead and eventually moved past her in the long run-up to the presidential election.
Once the race was down to two Democratic candidates, there was little to distinguish them on policy issues.
MULTICULTURAL AMERICA
Obama often points to his roots — his father was Kenyan and his mother a white woman from Kansas — as one reason he should be picked to run the country, saying he is representative of multicultural America.
One of his favorite lines — “When you’re a black guy named Barack Obama and you’re running for president you’ve got to have hope” — regularly draws laughs.
But it is clear Obama has also asked serious questions about his heritage.
A two-time bestselling author who also won two Grammy awards for the audio version of his books, Obama chronicled his struggles to understand himself and his race in 1995 in “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”
He followed up the memoir in 2006 with “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” outlining his political principles.
While attracting wide support among African Americans, Obama eschewed the rhetoric of race struggle and structured his campaign to appeal to all races.
He has also described himself as a “blank screen” on which people of all different political leanings can project their own views.
CLOSER SCRUTINY
As he moved ahead in the polls and the race for delegates who pick the party nominee, Democratic and Republican opponents took a closer look at his record and associates. Video of Jeremiah Wright, his black pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, giving racially and politically charged sermons, including saying U.S. policies were partially responsible for September 11 attacks, surfaced on the Internet in March.
Obama, who borrowed the words “audacity of hope” from Wright, was forced to disavow his pastor and ended up giving a much-praised speech on race in America.
Suddenly, every word and action was under a microscope. Comments to a closed-door fund-raiser earlier this month saying small town voters would “cling” to their guns and religion because they were “bitter” over their economic conditions caused a storm of criticism.
Obama, who is married with two daughters, was brought up in Hawaii and Indonesia, raised by his mother and her parents.
His father, from a small village in Kenya, met his mother while on a scholarship to study in Hawaii but left two years after Obama was born.
After graduating from college in 1983, Obama worked as a community organizer for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor Chicago neighborhoods before entering Harvard Law School where he was chosen as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
He jumped into politics in 1996 and served in the Illinois State Senate for eight years. After a failed run for U.S. Congress in 2000, Obama tried his hand at national politics again in 2004 and ran for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.
Luck played a role when Obama won a landslide victory against a stand-in Republican candidate after scandals felled first his top Democratic, then Republican, rivals.
After an star turn as keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Party convention in Boston, Obama was thrust into the role of presidential contender in a then wide-open race. His Pennsylvania loss on Tuesday was the latest chapter in what became a drawn-out battle with Clinton after other contenders dropped out following the early state results.
(editing by Frances Kerry and David Wiessler)
NOPE, not hope…
PA exit polls: Whites, blue-collar voters stick with Clinton
An Amish horse and buggy roll past a polling station for the Pennsylvania primary at the St. John’s Center United Church of Christ Tuesday, April 22, 2008, in Blue Ball, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Working-class white voters rallied around Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday as she kept her candidacy alive with a victory in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary. Barack Obama won among Democrats who had newly flocked to the party for the day’s showdown and scored even stronger than usual with blacks.
Obama, who had hoped to drive the New York senator from the race, fought hard during weeks of campaigning in the state to appeal to blue-collar white voters, a group he has seldom won during four months of Democratic contests.
But Clinton won support from two of three whites without college degrees, and about the same number of whites from families earning under $50,000 a year, according to preliminary figures from exit polls of voters conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks. It was one of her stronger performances of the year with these groups.
There was little indication Obama was winning over constituencies he may have offended when he said at a fundraising event that small-town people were bitter and clung to guns and religion as a result. Gun owners, people who attend church at least weekly, and rural residents were all supporting Clinton by margins of about six in 10.
Even so, while more rural voters named Clinton than Obama as the candidate who was in touch with people like them, more than half said they connected with both contenders.
Clinton was also winning among white men, a swing group in contests for far, by about a dozen percentage points. She had won that group last month by 19 points in neighboring Ohio, whose voters have many similarities to Pennsylvania’s.
Overall, six in 10 whites were supporting Clinton – a slightly stronger showing than usual. The state’s numerous Catholics and union members were also leaning heavily toward Clinton.
Nearly six in 10 who said they chose their candidate within the past week sided with Clinton, perhaps reflecting last week’s sharp debate in which Obama often seemed on the defensive from Clinton and the moderators.
With no clear end in sight in the party’s nomination fight, there were signs Democrats were sharply polarized between the two rivals. Barely half of Clinton’s supporters said they would vote for Obama should he be the party’s nominee this fall, while half of Obama’s backers said they would only be satisfied if he won the nomination.
Such feelings are often strongest during the heat of a competitive battle for a party’s nomination.
Obama, the Illinois senator bidding to become the first black president, won support from about nine in 10 blacks, a bit better than usual with a group he consistently dominates. Black voters were only about one in seven Pennsylvania voters, somewhat smaller than average in Democratic voting so far.
In one measure of the excitement the party’s presidential fight was generating, more than one in 10 voters had registered as Democrats in the state since the beginning of the year so they could vote in Tuesday’s primary. Six in 10 of them were voting for Obama, the exit polls showed.
Obama was also doing well in Philadelphia and its suburbs, where about six in 10 voters were backing him. The city is home to many black voters, while its suburbs are full of well-educated, liberal whites who have voted strongly for Obama.
Underscoring Obama’s lead among delegates and in the popular vote in prior primaries, just over half said they believed Obama would be the eventual nominee – including one in five Clinton supporters.
In many ways, voting groups split in familiar patterns. Women, older and less educated voters were decisively backing Clinton. Men, the young and most affluent were in Obama’s camp.
Clinton, though, showed signs of eating into two groups Obama normally controls as the two split college graduates and whites under age 30.
About nine in 10 said the country was already in a recession, and the economy was easily considered the country’s top problem. Slightly more said Clinton would do a better job handling the economy, though about half said either one would improve it.
The figures came from preliminary samples of an exit poll conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International in 40 precincts in Pennsylvania for The Associated Press and television networks. There were 2,217 voters in the Democratic primary who were interviewed, for a margin of sampling error or plus or minus 3 percentage points.
—
AP Polling Director Mike Mokrzycki and AP Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson contributed to this report.
Hmmm. No mention of the Republican crossovers who cast a Hillary ballot as part of Operation Chaos..
Carter calls Gaza blockade a crime and atrocity
By Jonathan Wright
CAIRO (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity on Thursday and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.
Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being “starved to death”, receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.
“It’s an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. it’s a crime… I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on,” Carter said.
Israel has been blockading Gaza most of the time since Hamas took control of the impoverished coastal strip in June last year, allowing only basic supplies to enter.
Israel has not accepted Hamas proposals for a truce including an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and to Israeli attacks on Hamas personnel in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli officials say a truce would enable Hamas to rearm.
Carter said Israel and its ally the United States were trying to make the quality of life in Gaza markedly worse than in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah group is in control.
“I think politically speaking this has worked even to strengthen the popularity of Hamas and to the detriment of the popularity of Fatah,” he added. The United States has been trying to achieve the opposite outcome.
Carter, who helped make peace between Egypt and Israel while president in the 1970s, said the Hamas leaders he has met so far told him they would accept a peace agreement with Israel negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas — the Fatah leader and Palestinian president — if the Palestinians approved it in a referendum.
Israel and the United States say they refuse to deal with Hamas as long as the Islamist movement does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence.
But Carter said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, had to be involved in any arrangements that could lead to peace.
“One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others… I know that there are some officials in the Israeli government that are quite willing to meet with Hamas and maybe that will happen in the near future,” he added.
Carter’s talks in Cairo were with former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and former Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, who did not speak to reporters.
Zahar and Seyam came to Cairo on Wednesday after the Israeli authorities refused to let Carter into Gaza from the Israeli side. Carter has already met a West Bank leader from Hamas and is expected to meet overall leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.
Earlier on Thursday, Carter met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. No details were available from either side.
(Writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Will Rasmussen and Jon Boyle)
The Artorius Editorial staff thinks Carter is the crime and atrocity..
Seed Newsvine
Artorius Castus 
2 comments