life:
Reblogged from life July 2nd, 2011 592 notes #President #Barack Obama #WorldviewsPresident Barack Obama leaves after speaking during a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Philadelphia. Obama has now taken direct control of debt-limit negotiations with Republicans in Congress.
see more — How the World Sees Barack Obama
Last Friday President Obama signed an executive order entitled Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Educational Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities. The signing took place as part of the third White House Tribal Nations Conference and comes after a long campaign by tribal organizations and other advocacy groups, including theLinguistic Society of American Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation. The Order makes several explicit references to Native languages. I have highlighted some of these references below.
- “The Initiative shall help expand educational opportunities and improve educational outcomes for all American Indian / Alaska Native students, including opportunities to learn theirNative languages, cultures, and histories.”
- “the Initiative shall promote, encourage, and undertake efforts, consistent with applicable law, to … increasing the number and percentage of AI/AN children who enter kindergarten ready for success through improved access to high quality early learning programs and services, including Native language immersion programs…”
- “Each [federal] agency plan shall include: … the preservation and revitalization of tribal languages and cultural traditions.”
- “…encourage the private sector to … providing funds to support the preservation and revitalization of Native languages and cultures…”
The signing of this Executive Order has been well received with many positive reactions over the weekend. For example, Alaska Senator Mark Begich noted that the Order will have repercussions for new legislation:“Any new law must respect and embrace Alaska Native cultures and languages, as well as give educators the tools needed to prepare students for careers in science, technology, engineering and math fields. I am pleased to see a focus on improving educational outcomes and career opportunities.”
For the complete text of the Executive Order see the press release.
YES!!!
(via karnythia)
December 11th, 2011 234 notes #langauge #native #american #indigenous #president #obama #support #history #linguistics
This Is Important, You Should Know About It of the Day: President Obama today quietly signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which contains controversial provisions requiring military custody for any non-citizen suspected of terrorism and affirming the president’s authority to indefinitely detain any supporter of al-Qaeda “or associated forces, irrespective of citizenship.
In a signing statement, the President said he had “serious reservations” about the bill, and criticised lawmakers for interfering with the work of counterterrorism professionals.
“Moving forward, my administration will interpret and implement the provisions described below in a manner that best preserves the flexibility on which our safety depends and upholds the values on which this country was founded,” the statement said.
The Obama administration was successful in striking down a provision that would have removed the ability of the executive branch to override the military custody requirement. Additionally, US citizens and legal immigrants may not be subjected to military custody under the revised bill.
However, an amendment to explicitly exclude American citizens and lawful residents from indefinite detention was rejected by Congress.
“My administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens,” Obama said. “Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.”
The President’s personal stance aside, in addition to creating myriad difficulties for counterterrorism agents working with suspected terrorists to gain information, the NDAA provisions leave the door wide open for future presidents to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial.
He does this knowing the racist history of this country and the first citizens, American citizens that this will be used and abused against are PoC.
What the fuck.
I don’t know. I just…
(via moniquill)
Reblogged from thedailywhat December 31st, 2011 2,051 notes #NDAA #politics #president #congress #national #defense #authorization #act
Real
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/12/31/396018/breaking-obama-signs-defense-authorization-bill/
TL;DR The President’s opponents played the electorate like a fiddle and will get away with it because people don’t seem to realize they’ve been tricked into being angry at the wrong person.
He signed it because if he didn’t, defense spending including benefits to veterans and their families would not have been authorized. The sections of NDAA that many people here seem to have a problem with are sections that were added into the document by primarily Republican legislators and which the President adamantly opposes but was powerless to stop. I’ll repeat that: the parts of this bill that many people here hate were included against the President’s wishes and in a way that he is powerless to stop. The only way he could have stopped these sections from being included would have been to try to veto the bill in its entirety, a move that would have been both political suicide as well as being futile, as Congress would simply have overridden him. He is explicit in his opposition to exactly the parts of the bill everyone here hates, going so far as to detail exactly which sections he opposes and why.
You’ll notice that the bill also restricts his ability to close Guantanamo Bay; this isn’t coincidence. These sections are openly hostile to the President’s stated mandate - they are effectively a giant ‘fuck you’ to the President, as well as a nasty way of eroding the President’s support with his own base. Observe:
Draft legislation that is almost guaranteed to piss of the President but more importantly piss of his base.
Attach said legislation to another piece of larger, more important legislation like, say, the Defense Spending budget for the entire year so that any attempt to dislodge the offensive legislation will result in a political shitstorm, as well as place the larger legislation in jeopardy.
Once attached, begin a PR campaign that highlights the offending legislation and brings it to the attention of as many media outlets as possible - not just the traditional media, but alternative media outlets as well (Fox news, MSNBC, Media Matters, Huff-Po, Infowars, etc.)
Here’s where it gets tricky: Simultaneously, speak to both your party’s base and the opposition’s. To your base, argue that the legislation is necessary to ‘Keep America safe’ and that the President, by opposing it, is clearly soft of terrorism and endangering the military by trying to strip the legislation out. At the same time, sit back and watch your opponent’s liberal supporters tear into the offending legislation as being dangerous, anti-democratic, and a threat to civil liberties. You know they will; that’s what they care about most. You’ve designed legislation that will make them froth at the mouth. You don’t even have to keep flogging the message; one look at the legislation will be enough to convince most people that it is anathema to everything they hold dear. Because it is.
Pass the ‘parent’ legislation. Doing so forces the President to sign it or attempt to veto it. Since the legislation in question just so happens to be the military’s operating budget, a veto is out of the question. The President must sign the bill, you get the legislation you wanted, but you also practically guarantee that your opponent’s base will be furious at him for passing a bill they see as evil. Even if he tries to explain in detail why he had to sign it and what he hates about it, it won’t matter; ignorance of the American political process, coupled with an almost militant indifference to subtle explanations will almost ensure that most people will only remember that the President passed a bill they hate.
Profit. you get the legislation you want, while the President has to contend with a furious base that feels he betrayed them - even though he agrees with their position but simply lacked the legislative tools to stop this from happening. It’s a classic piece of misdirection that needs only two things to work: A lack of principles (or a partisan ideology that is willing to say anything - do anything - to win), and an electorate that is easy to fool.
This is pretty basic political maneuvering and the biggest problem is that it almost always works because most people either don’t know or don’t care how their political system actually functions. The President was saddled with a lose-lose situation where he either seriously harmed American defense policy (political suicide), or passed offensive legislation knowing that it would cost him political capital. To all of you here lamenting that you ever voted for this ‘corporate shill’, congratulations: you are the result the Republicans were hoping for. They get the law they want, they get the weakened Presidential candidate they want. And many of you just don’t seem to see that. You don’t have to like your country’s two-party system, but it pays to be able to understand it so that you can recognize when it’s being used like this.
EDIT: thanks to Reddit user Mauve_Cubedweller for this post
Agreed, that’s the thing with this whole bill, it’s way more complicated than what the alarmists are making it out to be. The NDAA is not a singular “indefinite detainment” bill, that single article is a huge thing that the Republicans got in to put the President’s back against the wall and ensure that he could never close Guantanamo (which is its own fuck off lose-lose situation).
It’s just one of those shitty things where you ask yourself what you would do? No answer you give is free from fucking over lots and lots of people.
-Joe
People are forgetting a Presidential campaign is around the corner. The GOP is going to do and use every little trick they can.
(via karnythia)
Reblogged from jay-dot-universe January 3rd, 2012 9,922 notes #congress #games #gop #legislation #news #perspective #politics #president #obama #republicans #democrats #system“ taking Obama to the White House
Lesley Arfin, writer of the HBO show Girls, in her blog, has a metaphor for “pooping”. This ties to what Mark (of Mark Reads) mentioned here about working with her. She apparently compared Obama to poop regularly because he is brown. (via redlightpolitics)
She needs to go.
(via thempress)
Reblogged from redlightpolitics April 18th, 2012 410 notes #girls #hbo #writer #lesley arfin #PRESIDENT #Obama
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