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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (80230)	5/18/2010 7:07:56 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Ex-Obama pastor: 'Obama threw me under the bus' Ex-Obama pastor Wright said he is 'toxic' to administration; 'Obama threw me under the bus' LARRY NEUMEISTER AP News May 18, 2010 04:03 EDT The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that he is "toxic" to the Obama administration and that the president "threw me under the bus." In his strongest language to date about the administration's 2-year-old rift with the Chicago pastor, Wright told a group raising money for African relief that his pleas to release frozen funds for use in earthquake-ravaged Haiti would likely be ignored. "No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them. I am 'toxic' in terms of the Obama administration," Wright wrote the president of Africa 6000 International earlier this year. "I am 'radioactive,' Sir. When Obama threw me under the bus, he threw me under the bus literally!" he wrote. "Any advice that I offer is going to be taken as something to be avoided. Please understand that!" The White House didn't respond to requests for comment Monday about Wright's remarks. Several phone messages left by the AP for Wright at the Trinity United Church of Christ, where he is listed as a pastor emeritus, were not returned. Wright's spokeswoman, his daughter Jeri Wright, did not immediately comment on the substance of the letter. Then-Sen. Obama cut ties with Wright when his more incendiary remarks became an Internet sensation in the spring of 2008. At a National Press Club appearance in April 2008, he claimed the U.S. government could plant AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested Obama was putting his pastor at arm's length for political purposes while privately agreeing with him. Obama denounced Wright as "divisive and destructive" and later cut ties to the pastor altogether and left Wright's church. The letter was sent Feb. 18 to Joseph Prischak, the president of Africa 6000 International in Erie, Pa. Wright subsequently agreed to write a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the group's behalf to try to get access to millions of dollars. Wright's original letter ranting against Obama's treatment of him surfaced in an appeal filed by federal inmate Arthur Morrison, boxing great Muhammad Ali's one-time manager, who was convicted of making phone threats. Charles Lofton, Wright's executive assistant, told The Associated Press that he faxed a copy of the letter to Morrison's attorney as requested. A copy of the faxed letter signed by Wright showed that it was sent from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on March 31 to the fax number for Goodwin's law office in Tulsa, Okla. Prischak, of Africa 6000 International, is a business partner of Morrison, who has been imprisoned for nearly 18 years after he was convicted of making phone threats between 1989 to 1992 to hospitals where an ex-girlfriend worked. Prischak told Wright in a Feb. 11 letter that he was seeking the clergyman's help in reaching out to the U.S. Treasury Department. He said that Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, had entrusted 87 million British pounds in 1990 to Morrison and Ali to buy pharmaceuticals, milk and food for the children of Iraq. Prischak said the money was never spent because Morrison was imprisoned. He sought Wright's help in lobbying U.S. authorities to permit 25 million British pounds in interest from the money held in an overseas account to be allowed to be sent to faith-based groups for the children of Haiti.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (80230)	5/18/2010 9:41:28 PM
From: Broken_Clock	1 Recommendation Respond to of 89467

Napolitano Admits: Feds Don’t Have “Resources or Expertise” to Stop Oil Gusher By: David Dayen Tuesday May 18, 2010 12:53 pm news.firedoglake.com The President wants to create a blue-ribbon commission to study the growing Gulf oil spill. But investigations are ongoing right now. The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week found multiple problems with the various companies involved in Deepwater Horizon, as well as the regulatory failures surrounding them. The Senate is involved in hearings today with Interior Secretary Salazar, where he tipped his hand about future offshore drilling, telling anti-drilling Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) to “stay tuned.” (Salazar made some onshore drilling changes today.) And yesterday yielded this fascinating bit from a hearing with Janet Napolitano: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged Monday that the federal government doesn’t have the resources or expertise to deal with an oil spill 5,000 feet below the sea, and must largely depend on oil companies to deal with an incident of such magnitude. Napolitano, the first Cabinet-level official to testify to Congress about the April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, also said there may have been too much reliance by the industry on blowout preventers as a fail-safe in the event of a catastrophe. There was perhaps not enough regulation or testing of the devices by the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling, the Minerals Management Service. “I think that’s one of the reasons why the president has been so very clear that further deepwater drilling permits are going to be stopped until this can be investigated and assurances can be gained that things have been changed so that we don’t have a duplication of the deepwater Horizon incident,” Napolitano said. “And so I think we’re all working together to say, ‘All right, what happened here? What power should MMS have had that it didn’t have? What powers did it have that it didn’t exercise?” This is just a recognition of total regulatory and oversight failure. You cannot create the conditions for an oil spill that can affect millions of citizens and then throw up your hands that you simply don’t have the expertise to deal with the fallout. BP should obviously be in the lead financially, but consequences that are out of the control of those with the responsibility to protect the citizenry should be avoided. It’s the very definition of “too big to fail,” if you think about it. I don’t know if this nuclear sub-captain is right, but the point is that the federal government probably doesn’t know either. And that’s a tragedy.