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Obama team acts fast to change subject
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/11/9 | Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Posted on 01/11/2009 9:44:44 AM PST by SmithL

No sooner did New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdraw his nomination as secretary of commerce amid a "pay-to-play" grand jury investigation back home than word leaked that former California Rep. Leon Panetta was being named CIA chief.

The timing was no coincidence.

A Washington source tells us the Panetta nod wasn't due for another week, but that once Barack Obama's transition team "saw the Richardson train wreck coming, someone thought it would be smart to get reporters talking about something else, fast."

It worked with reporters. Unfortunately, the ploy frosted incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, who was not happy she found out by reading the CNN crawl.

By the way, newsroom colleague Michael Taylor passed on a joke making the rounds among New Mexico lawyers:

What's the difference between Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Richardson?

One had his phone tapped.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho2008; bhocia; chosenone; feinstein; panetta

1 posted on 01/11/2009 9:44:45 AM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL; All
"word leaked that former California Rep. Leon Panetta was being named CIA chief."

"In April 1985 Panetta joined with 13 of his leftist congressional colleagues — including Ron Dellums, Don Edwards, George Miller, Christopher Dodd, and Les Aspin — in sponsoring a 20th anniversary fund-raising gala for the pro-Marxist Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), which had been described by Brian Crozier, director of the London Institute for the Study of Conflict, as the "perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted if they were to originate openly from the KGB." The IPS was originally funded with millions of dollars from the Faberge perfume magnate and Communist Party member Samuel Rubin and his wife."

"Readers who recall the movement to impeach Bill Clinton remember that one of the charges raised by Clinton's critics was the conflict of interest created when individuals connected with the Chinese Overseas Shipping Company (COSCO) — such as John Huang, Charles Trie, and James and Mochtar Riady — helped funnel contributions to the Clinton reelection campaign. Afterwards, the Clinton administration lobbied for granting COSCO a 10-year lease on the former Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California. During a March 1997 edition of CNBC's Equal Time program, California Republican State Senator Dick Mountjoy noted that COSCO-linked arms dealer Wang Jun had been granted personal access to President Clinton, and that Wang's business associates had smuggled illegal assault weapons into California for delivery to street gangs by making use of a ship owned and operated by COSCO. Mountjoy then stated:

The next thing you know, (then-Chief of Staff) Leon Panetta is down here negotiating that port for the Chinese.

There is much more to the COSCO-Long Beach connection than we have room for here, but a good summary of the threat the arrangement made to U.S. security may be found in an item inserted into the Congressional Record by Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon on May 20, 1997.

Even the most unbiased of observers may legitimately ask: Why on Earth is an individual who helped negotiate the turnover of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard to the communist Chinese, thereby creating the threat to U.S. national security described in the Washington Times article by Rowan Scarborough and inserted into the Congressional Record by Rep. Solomon, being considered for a top position at one of our nation's most critical intelligence agencies?"

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/655

__________________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
Profile: Institute For Policy Studies (IPS)

IPS’s [Institute For Policy Studies] Washington, DC headquarters quickly became a resource center for national reporters and a place for KGB agents from the nearby Soviet embassy to convene and strategize. Cora Weiss headed one of the IPS's most successful forays -- into Riverside Church in Manhattan. She was invited there in 1978 by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin to run the church's Disarmament Program, which sought to consolidate Soviet nuclear superiority in Europe -- in the name of "peace." In 1982 Weiss helped organize the largest pro-disarmament demonstration ever held. Staged in New York City, the rally was attended by a coalition of communist organizations. During her decade-long tenure at Riverside, which became home to the National Council of Churches, Weiss regularly received Russian KGB agents, Sandinista friends, and Cuban intelligence agents. Weiss became infamous for her role in the psychological warfare conducted against U.S. prisoners of war held in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War.

The Liberation News Service, which is a news source for hundreds of "alternative" publications nationwide (with antiwar, Marxist-oriented perspectives), was founded in 1967 with IPS assistance."

[lots more at link...]

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6991

_________________________________________________________

This next one is from the Institute For Policy Studies itself...

Obama’s Agenda for Change and the 2009 Summit of the Americas

excerpt:

'Yes We Can' — Change for the Americas Coming from Below

Hemispheric resistance to the first attempt by the U.S. to force the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on every nation on this continent led to its eventual defeat at the IV Summit of the Americas, held in Argentina in 2005. The organizers of the April 2009 V Summit of the Americas had hoped to focus on a social agenda of providing a decent living for all those who call the “Americas” their home. The emergence of the PPA, or Bush’s Plan B for the FTAA, represents a threat to the urgent need of having all nations in the hemisphere focus on tackling the disparities that make the region the most unequeal in the world.

According to Obama, “what's good for the people of the Americas is good for the United States.” Among the specific proposals Obama has made (political freedom and democracy; freedom from fear and security; freedom from want and opportunity) in the “New Partnership for the Americas” document, he says that “it’s time for a new alliance of the Americas” that leaves behind “eight years of failed policies” and “top down reforms”, and puts forward instead an “agenda that advances democracy, security, and opportunity from the bottom up”. For Obama to make good on his vision for a new "partnership" in the Americas, the divisive Bush PPA initiative must be laid to rest well before the April V Summit of the Americas gets underway.

The 2009 IV Peoples’ Summit in Trinidad and Tobago

On April 17-19, 2009, the IV Peoples Summit will be taking place in Port of Spain, Trinidad (while heads of state are simultaneously meeting at the V Summit of the Americas).The message of a "change agenda" for the hemisphere will be brought to the island nation by social movements coming from all points in between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. A key focus for discussions during the People’s Summit will be the economic meltdown hitting the capitalist system, and the opening that this provides for the implementation of a peoples’ agenda promoting sustainable development, social justice, equity, and peaceful coexistence.[ie, communism/socialism -etl]

In conjunction with the Hemispheric Social Alliance, social movements present in Trinidad and Tobago will be providing a "change agenda" that, in large measure, will likely be echoed by representatives from many of the newly elected governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. The V Summit of the Americas will be an ideal setting for Obama to signal a new respectful and consultative role for the US in the Americas as well. Will Obama avail himself of the opportunity to take this courageous step forward? Ojalá!

http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/933

_________________________________________________________

The Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy

http://www.panettainstitute.org/index.htm

2 posted on 01/11/2009 9:50:00 AM PST by ETL (Smoking gun evidence on ALL the ObamaRat-commie connections at my newly revised FR Home/About page)
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To: SmithL
"Yoo-hoo!" "Don't forget me!"
3 posted on 01/11/2009 9:55:31 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: SmithL

4 posted on 01/11/2009 10:05:39 AM PST by Colonial Warrior (Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: SmithL

Obama is catching mistakes before they are final. You wonder what that means ultimately. Will it mean that the people he hires are good people? Or will it mean that he’s got so many crooks and other skeletons in his closet that this is the tip of the iceberg?


6 posted on 01/11/2009 10:36:21 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: F15Eagle

Wow. I never saw that one before.


7 posted on 01/11/2009 10:47:41 AM PST by GVnana ("I once dressed as Tina Fey for Halloween." - Sarah Palin)
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To: Brilliant
Obama is catching mistakes before they are final. You wonder what that means ultimately.

Obama's administration is comprised of political handlers who test the waters for a man incapable of true leadership?

8 posted on 01/11/2009 10:49:39 AM PST by GVnana ("I once dressed as Tina Fey for Halloween." - Sarah Palin)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: SmithL

IPS was a Soviet front. For Panetta to have any support of it at any time in its existence should be disqualifying, especially for an intelligence position. I’d rather appoint Putin directly.


10 posted on 01/11/2009 11:37:52 AM PST by Defiant (I for one welcome our new Obama Overlords.)
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To: ETL

Remember,,, just because everyone Obama has ever been involved with is corrupt, and that he came from a Chicago political machine,,,, He, the pure one, is still always presumed innocent. sarc/


11 posted on 01/11/2009 11:39:36 AM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs earn the title of "man's best friend", Muslims hate dogs,,add that up.)
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To: DesertRhino
He, the pure one, is still always presumed innocent.

I misread "presumed" as "perfumed." And then I laughed.

Perhaps Obama IS the great perfumed one?

12 posted on 01/11/2009 12:59:23 PM PST by GVnana ("I once dressed as Tina Fey for Halloween." - Sarah Palin)
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: SmithL

Lots of Democrat corruption going on:

http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2009/01/democrat-corruption-roundup.html


14 posted on 01/11/2009 5:46:33 PM PST by WOSG (Oppose Big Govt spending - no bailouts, no boondoggles, no earmarks)
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