Obama Increases Terror Detainee Program - Not Closing it Down

President Barack Obama pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility during his campaign and again after his Inauguration.

For many voters, this signaled an end to the policy of indefinite detention, one questionable legal legacy of the Bush administration.

Given this inferred promise, it looks bad enough that the Obama administration has announced plans to continue to hold indefinitely 48 current Guantanamo detainees.

But even worse, the administration is reportedly considering an international expansion of the practice of indefinite detention.

There is already a classified draft of the policy that lays out rules permitting suspected terrorists captured in the future to be detained indefinitely without charge and interrogated in overseas prisons, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This report becomes all the more troubling in light of a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision Friday.

The court decided in favor of the administration when it ruled that detainees held at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan have no right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention.

According to the court, this ruling even covers detainees captured far from any war zone and brought to Bagram for detention. - Politico Story

Dept. of Justice Covering Up for Obama?

The Justice Department has rejected a Republican request to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations that the White House offered a job to Rep. Joe Sestak if he would drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary.

In a letter sent Friday to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — but not publicly released — a Justice Department official said there was no need to have a special counsel to look into the allegations. Republicans have been pressing the issue for months, but the White House has insisted nothing inappropriate happened. Sestak himself has been the source of the allegation, stating publicly he was offered a job in order to clear the field for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

Sestak ended up defeating Specter in last week’s primary, but Republicans are still pushing for a full-blown investigation of the job offer allegation. Sestak has refused to say specifically what administration job he was offered, but many think it was secretary of the Navy.

In the letter to Issa, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the DOJ could handle the allegations without creating a special counsel. But Weich gave no indication that the department was looking into the Sestak matter.

“We assure you that the Department of Justice takes very seriously allegations of criminal conduct by public officials. All such matters are reviewed carefully by career prosecutors and law enforcement agents, and appropriate action, if warranted, is taken,” Weich wrote in the letter, which was obtained by POLITICO. “The Department of Justice, however, has a long history of handling investigations of high-level officials professionally and independently, without the need to appoint a special counsel.” - Politico Story

Obama Oil Spill - Same Problems Bush Had in Katrina

Billy Nungesser, the president of Plaquemines Parish on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, has a blunt message for Barack Obama: Cut out the middleman, Mr. President.

“There’s been a failure of leadership on all levels. Who in the hell is in charge?” said Nungesser, who is prodding the administration to back a controversial plan to build sand barriers to block the oil.

“I’m a big Republican, but the president spent two hours with me and really impressed me. ... He really seems to care, but I don’t think he’s getting good advice,” he told POLITICO. “I don’t think they’re telling him the truth about what’s going on around here. He needs to get more personally involved.”

Until this week, the Obama administration had largely managed to deflect responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon disaster onto others — vowing to keep a “boot on the throat” of BP, while slamming lax oversight on the part of federal regulators during the Bush administration.

But now, with crude lapping into the bayou, even Obama’s defenders have turned critical. A White House that prides itself on operational competence and message discipline has been frustrated by an environmental catastrophe it can’t predict, can’t control and can’t out-message — and the strain is showing.

A majority of Americans, by 51 percent to 46 percent, now disapprove of Obama’s handling of the crisis, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. An Associated Press-GfK survey taken less than two weeks ago showed that only one-third of those polled gave Obama low marks for his response. - Politico Story

Obama Administration - Drill Baby Drill - No Stoppage in Oil Drilling

The Obama administration is dialing up the pressure on BP as the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spread, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar held a news conference outside the oil company's Houston offices Sunday, calling himself "angry and frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and stop the pollution from spreading."

"We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed," he said.

But even as the administration hits BP rhetorically, it continues to issue drilling permits in the Gulf despite President Obama's announcement of a moratorium on new drilling projects, according to the New York Times.

The Times reports that seven new drilling permits have been granted, along with five waivers allowing companies to bypass certain environmental concerns. From the paper: "Asked about the permits and waivers, officials at the Department of the Interior and the Minerals Management Service, which regulates drilling, pointed to public statements by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, reiterating that the agency had no intention of stopping all new oil and gas production in the gulf." - Politico Story

Obama Criticized Bush for doing it - Now He's Doing it

A year after President Obama pledged to end the practice of funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with "emergency" spending bills, the Senate is taking up a $60 billion request that would do exactly that.

The spending bill, which includes $33 billion for the two wars in addition to disaster relief funds and aid for Haiti, is running headlong into concern from war-weary Democrats and deficit-conscious Republicans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the bill a "heavy lift" in her chamber. But the Senate, which is taking up the request first, could be the scene of a spending stand-off between Democrats and Republicans.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., plans to offer an amendment requiring Congress to offset the cost of the package with spending cuts elsewhere. He slammed the administration for continuing to use the "emergency" supplemental to fund the wars -- by designating the spending bill as "emergency," Congress avoids having to find a way to pay for it. - FOX News Story

If White House Did Nothing Wrong - Why Keep it Quiet?

A top-ranking Republican over the weekend accused the White House of handing a "bribe" to Rep. Joe Sestak, as the Pennsylvania congressman held firm to his claim that the Obama administration offered him a job to sit out the Senate primary race against Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is threatening to file an ethics complaint if Sestak doesn't provide more details about the alleged job offer

, including the name of the person who offered it.

Sestak repeatedly dodged questions about the incident in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," but was willing to repeat the allegation.

"I was offered a job. I answered that," he said.

Sestak, who ultimately stayed in the race and last week beat Specter for the Democratic nomination, has avoided discussing the job offer allegation since he first made the claim in an interview in February.

In a separate interview, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that lawyers reviewed conversations and found "nothing inappropriate." - FOX News Story

US Military Preparing for North Korea

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama "fully supports" the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

The administration said it endorsed President Lee Myung-bak's demand that "North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior."

Seoul can continue to count on the full backing of the United States, the White House said.

"U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression," the White House said.

The South Korean president said Monday that his nation would no longer tolerate the North's "brutality" and said the repressive communist regime would pay for the surprise March 26 torpedo attack. - FOX News Story

Obama Continues to Hide Job Offer to Sestak

The White House continues to avoid discussing details on whether Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak was offered a job if he skipped the Pennsylvania Senate primary but spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday that lawyers reviewed conversations and found "nothing inappropriate."

"I'm not a lawyer. But lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak. And nothing inappropriate happened," Gibbs told CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I'm not going to get further into what the conversations were. People that have looked into them assure me that they weren't inappropriate in any way," he said.

Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral who defeated Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic Senate primary last week, months ago said that the White House offered him a job to stay out of the race.

Sestak refused to bow out then, and still refuses to say now what job was offered.

"I was offered a job. I answered that," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press. "Anybody else has to decide for themselves what to say upon their role. And that's their responsibility."

Gibbs said Republicans continue to "dredge this up" because Pat Toomey, the GOP nominee challenging Sestak is "already behind in a very important Senate race."

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll taken one day after Tuesday's primary election showed Sestak leading Toomey 46-42 percent with 1 4.5 percent margin of error among 500 likely voters.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said if Sestak were offered a job, it would behoove the White House to "either corroborate that or call him a liar." - FOX News Story

Obama - BP's Biggest Recepient of Campaign Money

President Obama's oversight of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may have been hampered by his relationship to BP, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Sunday in the opening salvo of a verbal cage match with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Palin suggested that the White House is too cozy with the oil industry because of contributions to candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential race.

"I don't know why the question isn't asked by the mainstream media and by others if there's any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration,” Palin, a Fox News Channel contributor, said on "Fox News Sunday."

“If there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico -- now, if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn't received as much support even as President Obama has from B.P. and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case," she said.

Gibbs fired back that the former Alaska governor needs a lesson in how the oil industry works.

"Sarah Palin was involved in that election but, I don't think she was paying a whole lot of attention," Gibbs said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I'm almost sure that the oil companies don't consider the Obama administration a huge ally," he said, adding, "My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what's going on in and around oil drilling in this country."

Palin used Twitter shortly thereafter to respond to Gibbs.

"Obama is the top recipient of BP PAC & individual money over the past 20 years. Dispute these facts," she wrote, linking to a Politico article citing campaign finance reporting showing more than $3.5 million given to candidates by BP since 1990.

The largest single donation by BP -- $77,051 -- went to Obama. - Fox News Story

Sestak Admits that Obama White House Offered Job to Drop out of Race

Rep. Joe Sestak, winner of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, is refusing to provide more information on what job he was offered by a White House official to drop of that race, although he confirmed again that the incident occurred.

The White House was backing incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in the primary. Sestak acknowledged in an interview in February that he was offered a position by an unnamed White House official - a potential violation of federal law - but has not offered any specifics on conversation. Republicans are trying to use the issue against Sestak in the November Senate race.

"It's interesting. I was asked a question about something that happened months earlier, and I felt that I should answer it honestly, and that's all I had to say about it." Sestak said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Anybody else has to decide on what they will say upon their role. That's their responsibility."

Yet Sestak confirmed to NBC's David Gregory that the incident did take place.

"I was offered a job, and I answered that," Sestak said. "Anything that goes beyond that is for others to talk about." - Politico Story