Posted on 08/24/2009 10:34:49 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
That would come under the "horror" genre for Barry.
Das Kapital by Marx?
How fitting. Its what is happening just now.
Read real books?!?! And forego the Dr. Suess collection? Surely you jest.
PRESS BRIEFING BY
DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY BILL BURTON
Oak Bluffs School Filing Center
Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
10:34 A.M. EDT
MR. BURTON: Good morning. I think we’re going to call this Martha’s File Center. I like it. A little warm. But the President has enjoyed the hospitality of the folks here in Martha’s Vineyard and has, so far, hung out last night at the house, had dinner with Valerie Jarrett and her daughter, and the Whitakers came over. This morning the President worked out. He played some tennis with the First Lady, is going to hit the links today with Congressman Clyburn, Mr. Wolf of UBS, and Marvin Nicholson of the White House.
And here’s what’s on the reading list, because I know that some folks have been asking — it’s long: “The Way Home,” by George Pelecanos; Tom Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded”; Richard Price’s “Lush Life”; Kent Haruf’s “Plainsong”; and “John Adams” by David McCullough.
Q What was the fourth one?
MR. BURTON: The fourth one? Kent Haruf — “Plainsong.” That one?
With that, I’ll take some questions.
Q The CIA Inspector General report is expected to be released today, and it’s expected to discuss detainee abuse. What reaction is the administration going to have to this report?
MR. BURTON: Well, as the President has said repeatedly, he thinks that we should be looking forward, not backward. He does agree with the Attorney General that anyone who conducted actions that had been sanctioned should not be prosecuted. But ultimately, the decisions on who is investigated and who is prosecuted are up to the Attorney General. So I would refer you to the Department of Justice for any follow-ups.
Q So now we have this report, we have looked backwards. Does the White House support going after people who may have committed crimes?
MR. BURTON: The White House supports the Attorney General making the decisions on who gets prosecuted and investigated.
Q Does the President have a preference?
MR. BURTON: The President thinks that Eric Holder, who he appointed as a very independent Attorney General, should make those decisions.
Q Bill, I know that there’s no — nothing official as far as a visit to Senator Kennedy, just across the Sound there, but is that a possibility that he might go by and visit Senator Kennedy during this week?
MR. BURTON: There’s no plans for that. And I heard some reports today that the Secret Service had visited Hyannis Port. I don’t think that there’s any reason to believe that there’s any plan to go to Hyannis Port at this point. I think that if Secret Service agents were there they probably heard, like all of you already know, that they have great lobster rolls out there and they’re probably just checking on it. (Laughter.)
Hold on, I’ve got to get to Reuters.
Q General Motors’ choice of a buyer for Opel — there’s been a lot of talk back and forth about the Secretary of State getting involved. Is there any thought that the President plans to speak with Merkel about it?
MR. BURTON: The President’s view is that decisions made about the day-to-day operations at General Motors should be made by the folks at General Motors. He never wanted to get into the auto business, and he’s happy for them to make their decisions and get back on their feet.
Q So no plans for him to get involved at all?
MR. BURTON: None that I know of.
Q And what about the talk that the Secretary of State may have gotten involved? Do you know anything about that?
MR. BURTON: I don’t know anything about that. I would direct you over there.
Dan.
Q Yes, on the new unit, the elite unit to question these terror suspects, what does the White House hope to get from this unit that it — you know, information that couldn’t have been garnered in other ways?
MR. BURTON: Well, for starters, I can confirm the Washington Post report is largely accurate, and that the President, at the consensus recommendation of his interagency task force on interrogations and detainees, did put in place a new group, the high-value interrogation group, which will be housed at the FBI. The director will report to the director of the FBI. And it’ll bring together all the different elements of the intelligence community to get the best intelligence possible based on scientifically proven methods and consistent with the Army Field Manual.
The President’s view is that intelligence gathering is best left to the intelligence community, and this is a way that the intelligence community can best operate, especially in these high-value instances.
Q So there’s a sense, then, that what was in place before, other kinds of experts who were used to interrogate these suspects, this will be more efficient, you’ll get better information?
MR. BURTON: Well, the President’s view is that we can always work harder to protect the American people, and when he signed an executive order that put this task force in place to find new methods by which we can get more intelligence by scientifically proven means, he thought that they would be able to come up with a good plan in order to do just that. He has full confidence in this plan. And he’s going to continue to support it going forward.
Q And one other thing on Afghanistan. Is the President at all concerned that perhaps there are not enough troops on the ground to get the job done, as he really has ramped things up there? I mean, there’s the sense that we don’t have enough people on the ground there to get the job done.
MR. BURTON: Well, as the — let me start by saying that the men and women who serve the United States in Afghanistan are performing courageously and bravely under the most dangerous conditions in the world, and the President appreciates their service and is humbled by it. And the reason that we’re there is because the people who plotted and executed the attacks of 9/11 operate there still and are still plotting against us. And the reason that we’re there is to stop them. The President put in place a strategy by which we would disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies. And his view is that the — when he laid out his policy earlier this year to put more troops on the ground, put a new strategy in place is a winning strategy.
As you know, General McChrystal has only been there for a short time. But he’s undergoing a thorough review and assessment of the progress that we’ve made and what else we need to do in order to continue to make progress. So I think that we’re going to hold off until we get that assessment back, not prejudge or predetermine based on reports that are coming out of the region, and make a decision accordingly.
Chip.
Q On the investigation of abusive interrogations, you referred us to the Justice Department. Are you suggesting that the President will accept whatever recommendation the Attorney General comes up with?
MR. BURTON: I’m not just suggesting that. I’m saying that the President thinks that the decision of who to investigate and to prosecute is in his hands.
Q And does the — are you saying the White House has no role? Is the White House now communicating with the Justice Department on that? Has the President himself had any communications?
MR. BURTON: When the President appointed Attorney General Holder to the job, he said specifically that he wanted him to be independent and he wanted the Department of Justice to be an independent entity. He has great faith in Attorney General Holder, but he ultimately is going to make the decisions.
Q So it’s completely hands off, absolutely up to the Attorney General, no matter what the decision —
MR. BURTON: The decision is in the Attorney General’s hands.
Q Does the establishment of this group within the FBI mean that the CIA is effectively out of the interrogation business?
MR. BURTON: I’m sorry, say that again.
Q Does the establishment of this group within the FBI, under the FBI’s purview, mean that the CIA is out of the terror interrogation business?
MR. BURTON: Oh, no, absolutely not. The CIA is obviously — obviously has a very important role to play as it relates to interrogations. They’ve done a brilliant job in doing it so far, gathering intelligence. A lot of people don’t know that half of the FBI’s mission is actually to gather intelligence. So what this does is it houses all these different elements under one group where they can best perform their duties. The intelligence community is going to have a deputy who will be in that group, and obviously the CIA will be very involved in this.
Q So the CIA will have a seat at that table?
MR. BURTON: Yes.
(snip)
“John Adams” is a great read, as is “The Way Home” (Pelecanos, though often a moralistic lib, is a great mystery writer). Not a fan of Richard Price’s stilted prose (or his screenplays) and Tom Friedman is a fraud (I wanted to vomit after even a few pages of “The World is Flat”). I don’t know anything about Kent Haruf.
The time they report for the audio books is wrong even if they could find the abridged books. the correct time is 119 1/2 hours not 40 hours they report. That’s 5 full days. I guess he could be a speed reader but it looks to me like those are options and he may have time to read maybe part of one of those books.
That’s a good selection by Dear Leader, Zer0.
He’s already read all of Marx, Lenin, Alinsky, Ayers,and Krugman.
Maybe he could pick up something by Ayn Rand!
What isn’t he reading at the Marxist Vineyard? The answer is: H.R. 3200.
Yes but his ease at speaking arabic and quoting the Koran in his message to the Islamofascist at the start of Ramadan.... I think we know what he ACTUALLY reads.
No way is he reading that many books in one week. I’m a pretty fast reader and the most I’ve read is 4 in one week (all fun fast-paced novels like Vince Flynn’s). It took me a couple of weeks to read John Adams.
Wonder if he has publisher friends who want their book sales to increase.
LOL!!!!
I Wonder if Zero has read (or could even understand) Liberty and Tyranny by The Great One?????
Wow wee.. he must be smarter than Palin, cause we know she doesn't even read a magazine.. hahahahahahaa...
448 pages+336 pages+464pages +301 pages+768 pages....2317 pages to read.... play golf, play with children, get daily security briefings, get daily legislative briefings, watch ESPN, ... and read 2317 pages of really really page turning stuff...
uh, yah... uh-huh. How 'bout reading the democrat health bill from congress and then doing this.. UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU READ, sir. Or are we getting all "wee-weed" up about legislation that will affect everyone' life.
wow, he must be smart. That's why he won't release his transcripts... cause we'd all be put to shame by his brilliance... bwahahahahahahahaha... brother, puhleeze.
I don’t believe any of this crap. He MIGHT scan them. He’ll have a sycophant read the books and give him a detailed report, complete with “lessons” he can impart in his upcoming national addresses and/or Press Worship Services masquerading as news conferences.
Hussein doesn’t read. He dictates.
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