Message #162305

[Harconen]

            Obama’s new envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, arrives in Khartoum with “hands open” to establish a relationship of “friendship and cooperation” between the two countries. It is not clear why Obama now seeks relations with a regime that has engaged in an Islamic jihad and killed over two million innocent people in Sudan and Darfur. On March 4, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir, for his war crimes. Obama nevertheless wants to establish normal relations with the al-Bashir regime. [2197]

            It is reported that the FBI is engaged in a criminal fraud investigation against Joseph Cassano, former head of the Financial Products Group of AIG. Cassano allegedly set up multiple companies (some outside the United States) to handle fraudulent transactions in an effort to keep the details off the books of AIG and to hide the deals from regulators. [2120]

            A Zogby poll shows Obama’s approval rating at 49 per cent. Other polls (such as Gallup) still show Obama at around 60 per cent, but they count “fair” ratings together with “good” and “excellent,” while Zogby counts only “good” and “excellent” as favorable, treating “fair” and “poor” as not favorable. Says pollster John Zogby, “Fair is a negative because it doesn’t get you anywhere. Presidents don’t run on the basis of saying re-elect me, I did a fair job.” (Polls also usually count more Democrats in their sampling than Republicans.) [2129]

            At London’s G20 economic summit Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, states that the world economic breakdown is “not a crisis of capitalism” but the result of shifting “away from capitalism’s most fundamental values.” Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown fail to get the G20 leaders to commit hundreds of billions of dollars for their proposed Global New Deal, as most nations are unwilling to replicate the massive budget deficits that the United States and Great Britain have generated. [2130]

            At a press conference in London on April 2, attended by about 2,500 journalists, Obama finishes calling on reporters from his official list and takes questions from the others, saying he’ll take a question from “a foreigner.” After he catches his error he quickly admits, “I am the foreigner.” Perhaps believing she is a Muslim who will toss him a softball question, Obama then calls on Simrat Ghuman, a television reporter from India who asks if he had discussed Pakistan terrorism against India with the Indian prime minister. Clearly unwilling or unable to answer the question, Obama instead says, “First of all, your prime minister is a wonderful man,” teases the reporter about whether she supports him, and then finishes with, “I think he’s a very wise and decent man. And he’s done a wonderful job of guiding India, even prior to being prime minister, along a path of extraordinary economic growth that is a marvel, I think, for all the world.” The media gushes about how Obama “charmed” the reporter, but virtually all reports fail to mention that Obama never answered her question. [2161, 2162]

            The Senate votes on April 2 to reject Obama’s plan to reduce the tax deductibility of charitable donations. Obama planned to limit the tax deduction for charitable giving in order to generate an additional $318 billion in additional tax revenues, but critics argued the proposed change would significantly reduce donations to charities. Obama naïvely claimed that charities would not suffer with his tax change proposal; the Senate believed his critics. [2131]

            The House of Representatives approves Obama’s massive $3.55 trillion budget on April 2 by a vote of 233–196. Two less expensive Republican budget proposals were voted down 322–111 and 293–137. [2132, 2138]

            Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez meets with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. The two have become increasingly close, and they share a common hatred of the United States. Iran already has extensive human smuggling operations along the southern U.S. border, and is extending its already significant influence in South and Central America. Iran Air recently began weekly flights from Tehran to Caracas, Venezuela, with a stop in Damascus, Syria. Publicly portrayed as commercial airline flights, they are instead likely being used to ship weapons and other military equipment from Iran to Syria, and terrorists from Syria to Venezuela. The dangers of Iran extend far beyond the Middle East, even though Obama has remarked that it does not “pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” Obama may want to re-think the nature Iran’s threat if missile parts are on those weekly flights. [2671, 2672, 2673, 2674]

            A federal grand jury indicts former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on April 2. The 19-count indictment includes 16 felony counts for racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion, and making false statements. Also charged were Blagojevich’s former chief of staff Alonzo Monk, his subsequent chief of staff John Harris, and several others. The 75-page indictment references Blagojevich’s wife Patti and Obama moneyman Tony Rezko. Some of the charges relate to Blagojevich’s attempt to sell the Illinois Senate seat vacated by Obama. Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is “Congressman A” in the Blagojevich indictment. [2133, 2148]