Obama to middle class: Who loves you?
The middle class is back.
Amid the din of Republican cries of class warfare, the Occupy Wall Street movement and a fresh economic report that America’s rich are getting much, much richer, one phrase punctuated weekend remarks from President Barack Obama and his campaign strategists: the middle class.
As the Democratic president struggles to reconnect with his base — liberals, black Americans and younger voters — he is taking up the middle class mantra to target the crucial voting bloc.
This weekend there was no escaping who the Obama team’s message was aimed at.
Obama used “middle class” five times in his radio broadcast on Saturday that cited a new report on U.S. income inequality from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
In acknowledging the country’s growing income gap: “In fact, the average income for the top 1 percent of Americans has risen almost seven times faster than the income of the average middle-class family.”
Netanyahu on Obama ties: Under the bus? What bus?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to take the bait on Sunday when asked if he agreed with Republican presidential candidates that President Barack Obama is not pro-Israel enough.
He was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s recent comment that the Democratic president “threw Israel under the bus.”
“You are trying to throw me under the bus of American politics and, guess what, I’m not going to be thrown there,” Netanyahu joked.
The Israeli leader has had a strained relationship with Obama and in May criticized his vision of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders as leaving Israel “indefensible.”
Some of the Republicans hoping to challenge Obama in the November 2012 election, including front-runners Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry, have pounced on the issue and raced to proclaim their allegiance to the Jewish state.
Netanyahu, who called Obama’s speech on the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations last week a “badge of honor,” did not cede an inch to partisanship.
“I think the important thing to understand is this and this is the truth about America: Israel enjoys tremendous bipartisan support, tremendous,” he said. “And I think that bipartisan support is expressed by any person who happens to the president of the United States, including President Obama.”
Pawlenty defends blandness with race card joke
The race card? No, Governor, he just means you’re boring.
Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor running for the Republican nomination to unseat Democrat Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, brought up race on Sunday when asked if he was too boring to win.
“The knock on you is .. that you’re too nice, too bland, and Republicans want somebody who can take the fight to Barack Obama,” “Fox News Sunday” interviewer Chris Wallace said.
Wallace mentioned conservative Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly’s comment last week that “Haagen Dazs could put his picture on vanilla.”
“Did Bill O’Reilly use the word ‘vanilla’?” Pawlenty asked.
“He did,” Wallace replied.
“Is he playing the race card on me?” quipped Pawlenty, who is white.
Joy, then wariness, in post-bin Laden America
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The heady U.S. street celebrations that erupted after the death of Osama bin Laden gave way on Monday to stepped up security amid fears of revenge from the worldwide militant networks he inspired.
Thousands of cheering, flag-waving people gathered at the White House and on the streets of New York City overnight to rejoice in the killing of the al Qaeda leader responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in hijacked plane attacks on both cities nearly a decade ago.
By daybreak, police had increased security in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago in the wake of bin Laden’s killing by U.S. forces at a fortified compound north of Islamabad, Pakistan.
Public enemy No. 1 was gone, but it was clear bin Laden’s legacy — Islamic militant networks around the world — remained.
“Insofar as the bigger picture goes, he is yesterday’s man. The global jihad rages on,” said Pamela Geller, a conservative activist who led protests against a mosque planned near the World Trade Center site.
“I don’t think we’re safer,” said Evonne McKee, 56, a grant-writing consultant from Mount Dora, Florida. “The hate for America didn’t go away because he’s gone away.”
New York’s Times Square was even more heavily guarded than usual, with multiple police cars parked on every corner and uniformed officers patrolling the square in pairs. A police helicopter hovered overhead and police set up a mobile watchtower.
Opposition figure ElBaradei slams Egypt talks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei slammed fledgling negotiations on Egypt’s future on Sunday and said he was not invited to the talks.
The Nobel Peace laureate said weekend talks with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman were managed by the same people who had ruled the country for 30 years and lack credibility. He said the negotiations were not a step toward the change protesters have demanded in 12 days of demonstrations calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
“The process is opaque. Nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage,” ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Suleiman met on Sunday with opposition groups including the officially banned Islamic Muslim Brotherhood. On Saturday, Suleiman, Egypt’s longtime intelligence chief, talked with independent and mainstream opposition figures to discuss options for a transition of power.
“It’s managed by Vice President Suleiman,” ElBaradei said. “It is all managed by the military and that is part of the problem.”
ElBaradei said he has not been part of the negotiations.
“I have not been invited to take part in the negotiations or dialogue but I’ve been following what is going on,” he said.”
Mohamed ElBaradei slams Egypt talks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei slammed fledgling negotiations on Egypt’s future on Sunday and said he was not invited to the talks.
The Nobel Peace laureate said weekend talks with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman were managed by the same people who had ruled the country for 30 years and lack credibility. He said the negotiations were not a step toward the change protesters have demanded in 12 days of demonstrations calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
“The process is opaque. Nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage,” ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Suleiman met on Sunday with opposition groups including the officially banned Islamic Muslim Brotherhood. On Saturday, Suleiman, Egypt’s longtime intelligence chief, talked with independent and mainstream opposition figures to discuss options for a transition of power.
“It’s managed by Vice President Suleiman,” ElBaradei said. “It is all managed by the military and that is part of the problem.”
ElBaradei said he has not been part of the negotiations.
“I have not been invited to take part in the negotiations or dialogue but I’ve been following what is going on,” he said.”
Wikileaks documents reveal sensitive U.S. cables – NYT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. State Department documents released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks provided candid views of foreign leaders and sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The documents show Saudi donors remain chief financiers of militant groups like al Qaeda and that Chinese government operatives have waged a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage targeting the United States and its allies, according to a review of the WikiLeaks documents published in the Times.
The WikiLeaks documents also show U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes any military strike on Iran would only delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by one to three years, the Times reported on its website on Sunday.
The cables also showed that Iran has obtained sophisticated missiles from North Korea capable of hitting western Europe and the United States was concerned that Iran was using those rockets as “building blocks” to build longer-range missiles, the Times said.
The advanced missiles are much more powerful than anything U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged that Iran has in its arsenal, the newspaper said.
The Pentagon immediately condemned WikiLeaks’ “reckless” dump of classified State Department documents and said it was taking steps to bolster security of U.S. military networks.
“The (Defense) Department has undertaken a series of actions to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
WikiLeaks documents reveal sensitive U.S. cables: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – State Department documents released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks provided candid views of foreign leaders and sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The documents show Saudi donors remain chief financiers of militant groups like al Qaeda and that Chinese government operatives have waged a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage targeting the United States and its allies, according to a review of the WikiLeaks documents published in the Times.
The WikiLeaks documents also show Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes any military strike on Iran would only delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by one to three years, the Times reported on its website on Sunday.
The cables also showed that Iran has obtained sophisticated missiles from North Korea capable of hitting western Europe and the United States was concerned that Iran was using those rockets as “building blocks” to build longer-range missiles, the Times said.
The advanced missiles are much more powerful than anything U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged that Iran has in its arsenal, the newspaper said.
The Pentagon immediately condemned WikiLeaks’ “reckless” dump of classified State Department documents and said it was taking steps to bolster security of U.S. military networks.
“The (Defense) Department has undertaken a series of actions to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
U.S. says WikiLeaks release would endanger lives
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The State Department has warned the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks that its expected release of classified U.S. documents would endanger countless lives, jeopardize American military operations and hurt international cooperation on global security issues.
The department’s top lawyer urged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a letter Saturday to keep classified documents off the website, remove records of them from its database and return any material to the U.S. government.
Lawyer Harold Koh said the department has learned that WikiLeaks provided 250,000 documents to The New York Times, The Guardian of Britain and German magazine Der Spiegel.
Some media reported the news outlets may post stories on the documents as early as Sunday and said they have also been given to newspapers Le Monde in France and El Pais in Spain.
The U.S. government, which was informed in advance of the contents, has contacted governments around the world, including in Russia, Europe and the Middle East, to try to limit any damage. Sources familiar with the documents say they include corruption allegations against foreign leaders and governments.
Koh wrote that publication of the documents would “place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals” as well as military initiatives and cooperation between countries to confront problems from terrorism to pandemic disease.
The lawyer also rejected what he said was Assange’s request for more information about individuals who might be at risk from publication of the documents.
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