Chris Christie released his first ad for his 2013 reelection campaign, reportedly part of a $1.5 million buy, touting his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and responding to backlash he’s received from Republicans for his work with and praise of President Obama.Christie has been “working with Democrats and Republicans. Believing that as long as you stick to your principles, compromise isn’t a dirty word,” the ad says.”The most important thing he did has little to do with numbers, statistics, or even politics. He made us proud to say we we’re from New Jersey,” it continues.Watch:Continue Reading… … Read More
Obama renews efforts to shut down Guantanamo
Related
US presidents turn out for opening of George W. Bush… 26/04/2013 00:35 CET
Vanishing emails and hunger strikers force Guantanamo… 12/04/2013 08:13 CET
Obama: budget sticking resumes 10/04/2013 19:16 CET
Obama seeks budget deal with Republicans 10/04/2013 19:25 CET
First woman to lead US Secret Service is sworn in 28/03/2013 00:25 CET
Going back to a pledge he made during his first presidential campaign, Barack Obama will try to persuade Congress to close the Guantanamo detention centre.
The US president has failed to make good on his 2008 promise to shut down the facility.
Many of the 166 inmates have never been tried or charged.
“Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe. It is expensive; it is inefficient; it hurts us in terms of our international standing; it lessens cooperation with our allies on counter terrorism efforts; it is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed,” said Obama.
The spotlight is back on the controversial detention centre because around 100 inmates are on hunger strike. Some of them are being force fed.
Some 40 extra medical staff from the US navy have been sent to Guantanamo to help deal with the situation.
More about: American politics, Barack Obama, Guantanamo, USA
Copyright © 2013 euronews
JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video
Secretive gun group uses Native Americans to push against gun safety measures
A billboard advertising campaign using a photo of Native Americans to protest gun safety laws in Colorado has brought criticism from Native American residents. KUSA-TV reported on Monday that the ad, which shows three Native American men with the message, “Turn in your arms. The government…
Female soldier gets jail time for fleeing to Canada
Pfc. Kimberly Rivera, 30, on Monday plead guilty to two counts of desertion for avoiding her second tour in Iraq. The Army private had served in Iraq in 2006, and deserted during her two-week leave in the US in 2007. She fled with her husband and children to Canada in protest of what she called an “illegal and immoral war” – a war that she said she became disillusioned with.Upon arrival in Canada, Rivera applied for refugee status, but was threatened with deportation in 2009. Her requests for permanent residency and residency based on humanitarian grounds were also rejected, but the young woman continued to appeal the deportation order until a second one was issued in 2012. She spent five years living in Canada before turning herself in to authorities at the US border in September.The Canadian-based War Resisters Support Campaign launched a petition protesting her most recent deportation order, but Canadian authorities rejected their request to let Rivera stay. About 19,000 people had signed the online petition and rallies were held throughout Canada, calling on the government to let Rivera make her home in the country. Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu also protested the order, but failed to impact the government’s decision.“Military deserters from the United States are not genuine refugees under the internationally accepted meaning of the term. These unfounded claims clog up our system for genuine refugees who are actually fleeing persecution,” Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s spokeswoman, Alexis Pavlich, said last September.During her sentencing hearing in the US, attorneys representing Rivera argued that the woman’s husband had threatened to leave her and take the children if she returned to Iraq. She alleges that she was partially motivated to desert the military because of the prospect of losing her children.James Matthew Branun, a civilian defense attorney representing the young woman, argued before the judge that Rivera did not know she was able to file as a conscientious objector of the Iraq War, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. In many cases, conscientious objectors are appointed to alternative services as a substitute for their military assignments. Since Rivera was morally opposed to the Iraq War and claims she could never kill another person, she could have requested to serve the military in a different way.But after pleading guilty to her desertion, Rivera was sentenced to 10 months in military prison and a bad conduct discharge.The young mother is the third Iraq war resister that was deported from Canada and now faces a jail sentence. Robert Long and Clifford Cornell, both deserters of the Iraq war, were dishonorably discharged and deported from Canada. Long was sentenced to 15 months in military prison in 2008.The War Resisters Support Campaign, a Canadian activist group, estimates that there are about 200 other Iraq war deserters currently living in Canada. … Read More
FBI looking into McDonnell’s ties to donor
FBI agents are looking into the ties between Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, R, his wife Maureen, and the chief executive of Star Scientific, Jonnie R. Williams Sr, a major campaign donor to McDonnell who paid for $15,000 worth of catering at his daughter’s wedding. McDonnell did not disclose the donation in his 2012 filings.Investigators are also looking into other potential gifts that McDonnell did not disclose, the Washington Post reports.From the Post:Now, federal officials are trying to determine whether to expand that investigation into a broader look at whether McDonnell or his administration took any action to benefit Star Scientific in exchange for monetary or other benefits, according to the four people familiar with the interviews. It is unclear whether the probe will be broadened.Star Scientific, which manufactures the dietary supplement Anatabloc, has recently been the target of a securities probe by Virginia investigators.Continue Reading… … Read More
Chris Christie’s praise of Obama unlikely to hurt his 2016 prospects
New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s favorite question these days is whether he regrets working closely with the president on Hurricane Sandy relief. “No,” he gets to say, before explaining that the work of governing is more important than politics. Then a campaign aide cuts the…
Mark Zuckerberg is not trying to drill in ANWR
It was the kind of ThinkProgress headline sure to get environmentalists riled up and retweeting furiously: “Mark Zuckerberg’s New Political Group Spending Big On Ads Supporting Keystone XL and Oil Drilling.”The implication was awful, and unsettling. Cash from the billionaire and the rest of the bevy of Silicon Valley contributing to Zuckerberg’s new FWD.US PAC is bankrolling an effort to start drilling in ANWR. Sound the alarm! Better yet, change your Facebook avatar in protest! But hang on there just a sec. The ThinkProgress headline is misleading. Zuckerberg’s PAC — or rather, the two subsidiary PACs it has launched, one leaning Democratic, and one leaning Republican — are not spending big pushing drilling in Alaska and the Keystone pipeline. They are spending big supporting senators up for reelection who just happen to support the Keystone pipeline and drilling in ANWR. Yes, the ads cite those positions as points in favor of those politicians, but that’s not quite the same thing as a big political ad campaign pushing a specifically pro-drilling agenda.Continue Reading… … Read More
