White House officials are upset about the book . But they should use it as an opportunity to examine the deeper question of how the foreign policy process got so damaged and what they can do to repair it. If anything, the situation is worse now than when Gates was at the Pentagon: He was part of the famous team of rivals that also included other strong, confident leaders such as Hillary Rodham Clinton at State, Leon Panetta at the CIA and then the Pentagon, and Gen. David H. Petraeus in Kabul and, later, at the CIA. At the center of this process was Tom Donilon , the national security adviser, disliked by Gates as a political commissar but effective at maintaining order among a team whose members, as Gates makes clear, were often seething.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-only-obama-can-fix-his-broken-foreign-policy/2014/01/10/d0cb9c9a-797d-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html
Obama: A Promoter at Heart but Not Good for the Country!
TheCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)is getting ready to sign a $90 million, 12-month contract with Accenture, one of the biggest IT consultancies in the country, after months of problems with the healthcare.gov website and its underlying systems. The site rolled out October 1 and pretty much fell on its face. Subscribe to gigaom.com In a statement to USA Today ,Aaron Albright, spokesman for the CMS, said: We are working with our contract partners to make a mutually agreed upon transition to ensure that HealthCare.gov continues to operate smoothly for consumers We continually evaluate our needs and remain focused on ensuring consumers have access to affordable, quality coverage, and more than 1.1 million already have enrolled in a private plan in the federal marketplace. Its been a rough couple of months for CGI Federal, which is also f acing states over their own insurance web sites. While there have been apparent improvements to the sites performance, the whole rollout was a huge PR problem for President Obama, who made healthcare reform a priority for his second term. Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research: Google+ Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can this one be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/gigaom/articles/2014_01_10_obama_administration_is_dumping_congractor_over_healthcare_gov_debacle.html
President Obama Congratulates Jimbo Fisher
The point of today’s lesson is that Obama is a promoter and Romney was not. Most conservatives are not promoters. It is not in their nature to lie about such basic fundamental ideas. For example if we tax the rich, we will get rid of poverty and the national deficit. They have been taxing the rich for years and we have more poverty and more debt then we have ever had. But let’s keep taxing the rich!
Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-a-promoter-at-heart-but-not-good-for-the-country
Obama to nominate Stanley Fischer, two others to Fed seats
He has worked at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund , and he was vice chairman of banking behemoth Citigroup Inc. from 2002 to 2005. Fischer was Bernanke’s doctorate advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught both Lawrence H. Summers, a former Treasury secretary, and Mario Draghi , the European Central Bank ‘s president. Obama said Fischer was “widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading and most experienced economic policy minds” and that he and Yellen would “make a great team.” Alex Cukierman, an economics professor at Tel Aviv University, agreed.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fed-nominees-20140111,0,3128401.story?track=rss
Lawmakers: Obama Weighing Changes in NSA Policy
Todays Fed nominations are, well, better. New Fed vice-chairman Stanley Fischer will, if confirmed, replace the new chairman, Janet Yellen, who was confirmed earlier this week by the Senate. Jerome Powell has been nominated for a second term a few weeks before his current one expires. And Lael Brainard (Woo! Wesleyan and the College of Social Studies — I was two years behind her in the program) has been picked to fill a seat vacant since August. Obama still hasnt announced a replacement for board member Sarah Bloom Raskin, whom he nominated to become Deputy Treasury Secretary back in July.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/obama-finally-getting-his-act-together-on-nominations.html
Obama Finally Getting His Act Together on Nominations
Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) issued a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday demanding the department remove DOJ trial attorney Barbara Bosserman from the case, saying her involvement is highly inappropriate and has compromised the administrations investigation of the IRS. More from the Fed Page Gates of Wrath Al Kamen Bob Gatess new memoir is an important lesson for any president picking top officials to serve in his first term cabinet. The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 41 groups suing the IRS over its controversial screening methods, also criticized the appointment of Bosserman to lead the probe. Appointing an avowed political supporter of President Obama to head up the Justice Department probe is not only disturbing but puts politics right in the middle of what is supposed to be an independent investigation to determine who is responsible for the Obama administrations unlawful targeting of conservative and tea party groups, ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement Thursday.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/obama-donor-leading-justice-departments-irs-investigation/2014/01/09/980c010a-796a-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html
Only Obama can fix his broken foreign policy
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the meeting focused in particular on the telephone data program and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The president also met this week with his top intelligence advisers, many of whom oppose changes to the NSA programs, and a review group appointed by Congress that is working on a report focused on the surveillance systems. Privacy advocates met with senior White House staff Thursday afternoon, and technology companies have been invited to a meeting on Friday. The president’s decisions will test how far he is willing to go in scaling back the NSA’s broad surveillance powers. A presidential commission handed him more than 40 recommendations, many of which were more sweeping than expected. However, Obama is not obligated to accept any of the panel’s proposals.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-expected-curb-nsa-access-phone-records-21471742
Obama donor leading Justice Department’s IRS investigation
Obama told Fisher he’s looking forward to welcoming the team to the White House to celebrate the championship. Florida State beat Auburn 34-31 on Monday night in the BCS championship game to finish the season 14-0. Join the Discussion You are using an outdated version of Internet Explorer. Please click here to upgrade your browser in order to comment.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/president-obama-congratulates-jimbo-fisher-21494973
Young and Broke 