Friday 31 May 2013
Video: Watch quick - available until 3rd June: Can UK afford the NHS?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b020svhc/?t=15m16s
Video on Obama 1st term: Did President Obama betray America's highest ideals in the name of national security?"
BBC iPlayer - HARDtalk: Harold Koh - Legal Adviser, US State Department 2009-13: "President Obama says the US needs to redefine and recalibrate its strategic response to terrorism. From drone strikes to the future of Guantanamo, the Obama administration has consistently struggled to reconcile its stated values with the realities of the so-called war on terror. Stephen Sackur speaks to Harold Koh who was chief legal adviser at the US State Department throughout Obama's first term. Did President Obama betray America's highest ideals in the name of national security?"
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Thursday 30 May 2013
Friday 24 May 2013
Thursday 23 May 2013
Excellent article about Obama's second term
A simple to understand yet insightful article about Obama's second term. Good refs to relationship with congress.
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Monday 20 May 2013
Friday 17 May 2013
Thursday 16 May 2013
Friday 10 May 2013
Benghazi probe is more than just an attack against Hillary Clinton | James Antle | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Benghazi probe is more than just an attack against Hillary Clinton | James Antle | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "Did the White House want to avoid any perception that a terrorist attack, launched on the anniversary of 9/11, was mishandled as President Obama was running for reelection? Was there too light a military footprint because the earlier campaign for regime change in Libya was sold to the American people as requiring no boots on the ground? Who even knew what, when?"
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How successful is Obama as President? CQ Ratings
2012 Congressional Vote Studies | The Data Mine – CQ Roll Call: "ck Obama first took office, he enjoyed Democratic majorities in both chambers and record high success rates. In 2009, Obama won on 94 percent of House votes on which he expressed a clear position, tying Lyndon Johnson’s record from 1965. He prevailed on 99 percent of Senate votes that year, by far the highest success rate on record."
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Wednesday 8 May 2013
May 2013 How strong is the US presidency?
http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/may/08/obama-not-lame-duck-gop-obstructs-everything
Good synopticity here. Liberal Guardian backing the blame-the-GOP line.
How powerful are US parties?
Good example here of how parties have less power over politicians in US (although this wasn't a Congressional election)
http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2013/may/08/mark-sanford-south-carolina-election
Tuesday 7 May 2013
Obama versus Congress on Guantanamo | Nicholas Wapshott
As a candidate in 2008, Obama, a distinguished Harvard-educated legal scholar known in the Senate for his common sense and humanity, promised to quickly close the prison for 166 terrorist suspects in the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The existence of a U.S. detention center that ignores the basic legal right of habeas corpus and the failure to bring prisoners to trial after so many years “erode our moral claims that we are acting on behalf of broader universal principles,” he said. He went on to repeat his pledge, yet five years on, Gitmo is still open for business.
The president’s embarrassment can be blamed, in part, on his naïveté. For a while after his inauguration in 2009 he appeared to be under the impression he had been elected the most powerful man on earth. It has taken four painful years for him to realize that the division of government guaranteed by the Constitution prevents him from doing not only what he wishes but what a majority of Americans have mandated.Under the guise of saving money, Congress has stymied the president’s plan to try those believed guilty of terrorist offenses on U.S. soil and to release the 86 innocents who have been held without trial for years. Despite their insistence that they believe in America’s system of justice, it appears that many congressmen have little faith in it.
Obama versus Congress on Guantanamo | Nicholas Wapshott:
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Dec 2011: Why Obama Can't Close Guantanamo | Foreign Affairs
Why Obama Can't Close Guantanamo | Foreign Affairs:
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Congress has used its spending oversight authority both to forbid the White House from financing trials of Guantánamo captives on U.S. soil and to block the acquisition of a state prison in Illinois to hold captives currently held in Cuba who would not be put on trial -- a sort of Guantánamo North. The current defense bill now before Congress not only reinforces these restrictions but moves to mandate military detention for most future al Qaeda cases unless the president signs a waiver. The White House withdrew a veto threat on the eve of likely passage Wednesday, saying the latest language gives the executive enough wiggle room to avoid military custody.
May 2013: Obama's Renewed Push to Close Guantanamo Faces Test in Congress - WSJ.com
The Gitmo hunger strike has seen Obama renew his attempts to close the detention centre.
Obama's Renewed Push to Close Guantanamo Faces Test in Congress - WSJ.com:
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Obama's Renewed Push to Close Guantanamo Faces Test in Congress - WSJ.com:
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Monday 6 May 2013
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