A new man for super lame duck President George Bush to pardon?
Felipe Sixto, a former aide to US President George Bush has been arrested and charged with stealing. The former special assistant to President George W. Bush for intergovernmental affairs was arrested for theft of $5,000 or more from a federally aided program that promotes democracy in Cuba, The Center for a Free Cuba.
29-year-oldSixto worked with Native American groups and Hispanic officials on Cuba, Puerto Rico, health, labor, transportation, the environment and energy.
Outgoing President George W. Bush has revealed that he reached out to former President Bill Clinton for advise on how to handle his meeting with incoming US President Barack Obama.
In an interview with CNN, Bush said that he rang Bill Clinton the day before Obama and his wife arrived at the White house for ideas on guidance on handling the new kid on the block.
"'Bill, I'm getting ready to meet with the new president and I remember how gracious you were to me. And I hope I can be as gracious to president-elect Obama as you were to me,"' Bush told CNN today in a description of the call.
"To the extent that he asked my advice and he may want to ask it again, and the best way to make sure he feels comfortable asking it again is for me not to tell you in the first place what I advised him," he said.
Bush also said one of his biggest regrets as President was the infamous "mission accomplished" banner
"I regret saying some thing I shouldn't have said, like dead of alive....I was trying to convey a message and I probably should have conveyed it more artfully"
"I regret that that sign (Mission Accomplished) was there," Bush said.
The Obama-Bush Whitehouseliason this week was more than just a symbolic meeting between the outgoing and ingoing leaders of the free world.
According to the New York Times, President Bush and President elect Obama were in the first stages of negotiation that would see the Whitehouse quickly approve a second major stimulus package for the US economy. The deal is particularly focused on help for the ailing US automaker industry, with car giant General Motors starring down imminent bankruptcy.
Bush wants to get thought a controversial Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, which has been stalled in the US House and Senate. In return for passing the trade agreement Bush would allow a stimulus package tailored for the US car industry and nation wide infrastructure investment to be signed into law well before Obama takes the Whitehouse reigns on January 20, 2009.
Mr. Obama went into his post-election meeting with Mr. Bush on Monday primed to urge him to support emergency aid to the auto industry, advisers to Mr. Obama said. But Democrats also indicate that neither Mr. Obama nor Congressional leaders are inclined to concede the Colombia pact to Mr. Bush, and may decide to wait until Mr. Obama assumes power on Jan. 20..
Separate from his differences with Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama has signaled to the automakers and the unions that his support for short-term aid now, and long-term assistance once he takes office, is contingent on their willingness to agree to transform their industry to make cleaner, more energy-efficient vehicles.
A week after Mr. Obama’s election, and more than two months before he takes office, the steadily weakening economy and the prospect of many more job losses are testing his effort to remain aloof from the nation’s business on the argument that “we only have one president at a time.”
Could this be George Bush's gift to John McCain just one week before Americans go to the polls in one of the most important elections in the history of the world?
Syria accused the United States on Monday of committing a "terrible crime" in killing eight civilians during a helicopter attack on a Syrian farm near the border with Iraq. Syria has said four U.S. helicopters attacked the al-Sukkari farm in the AlbouKamal area in eastern Syria on Sunday and that U.S. soldiers stormed a building in the area.
The United States, which accuses Syria of failing to stem the flow of alQaeda fighters and other insurgents into Iraq to attack U.S. forces, has neither confirmed nor denied the incident.
"This is an outrageous raid which is against international law. It is a terrible crime. I don't know the political meaning of it. We are expecting clarifications from the Americans," Syrian Ambassador to London Samial-Khiyami told Reuters.
The US has complained for many years that the DamascusGovernment had not done enough to prevent foreign fighters who heavily traffic the border are between Iraq and Syria.
But why would the Pentagon act now? No doubt the operation involving US helicopters and American special forces soldiers, would have been given the go ahead by President Bush, given the sensitive nature of crossing into a sovereign nation proper.
Why send shock waves across the middle east and around the world with an operation that clearly violates Syrian territory to go after what appears to be a small band of either traffickers of foreigners into Iraq, or as some Arab media says was civilian targets?
Why did something like this not happen much earlier, when it was clear that fighters have been using this area to pour into Iraq for many, many years?
Either way this smells fishy. Given that many people consider Republican Presidential candidate John McCain the more capable candidate on issues of national security and foreign policy, the operation in Syria, though low key would no doubt shore up doubts in voters minds over the ability of the relatively less experienced Barack Obama to deal with such a crisis.
The McCain camp has even released a plethora of TV ads in an attempt to throw up these doubts in voters minds as they head for the ballot box November 4.
