Presidential schedule.

[Jacque67 7,328]

Hey Cousteau go take a dip. or better yet!

Charming!

May be you should, and then you wouldn't feel the need to focus so much hatred upon the president.

Toodle pip, what what!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Charming!

May be you should, and then you wouldn't feel the need to focus so much hatred upon the president.

Toodle pip, what what!

You call it hate I call it reality.

[Crashed~N2~Me 970]

Crash and Nature have you been called racist yet? The man child Obama was nursed on harvard professors no wonder he's an ultra idiot.

I have not been called racist. Hope I won't be but if I am.. I will try to be open minded & identify what (I did that) triggered the response and if I should be = accountable.

[JohnR! 5,495]

You missed a couple of days on the POTUS' agenda...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/25/obama-makes-surprise-visit-to-afghanistan-to-visit-troops/

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  May 25, 2014: President Barack Obama speaks during a troop rally after arriving at Bagram Air Field for an unannounced visit, north of Kabul, Afghanistan.AP

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President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan this Memorial Day weekend, thanking troops for their fight to protect America and vowing to repay the sacrifice with lifetime commitments.

“We’re going to stay strong by taking care of your families,” the president told troops at Bagram Air Field in a roughly 25-minute speech. “We’re going to stay strong by taking care of our wounded warriors and our veterans. Because helping our wounded warriors and veterans heal isn’t just a promise, it’s a sacred obligation... I’m here to say that I’m proud of you.”

The visit took place amid outrage back in the United States over the treatment of America's war veterans. More than two dozen veterans' hospitals across America are under investigation over allegations of treatment delays and deaths, putting greater scrutiny on the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The agency already was struggling to keep up with the influx of forces returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama arrived under the cover of darkness Sunday night to visit troops serving in the final months of their country’s longest war. He told service members that their valor is bringing the campaign to a “responsible end” and has Al Qaeda “on its heels in this part of the world.”

Obama, wearing a brown leather bomber jacket emblazoned with a U.S. presidential patch, also told the troops he is trying to get them out by year’s end -- to make good on a U.S.- NATO commitment to withdraw most of their forces by 2015.

He said he would probably make a decision “fairly shortly” on the county’s post-2014 presence in Afghanistan after talking with “folks on the ground.”

Obama was joined on the trip by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who said before the president’s speech that Obama could announce his decision during a foreign policy address Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

The president is seeking to keep a small number of troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to train Afghan security forces and conduct counter-terrorism missions. But that plan is contingent on Afghan President Hamid Karzai's successor signing a bilateral security agreement that Karzai has refused to authorize.

Obama didn’t meet with Karzai while in Afghanistan.

A White House official said no bilateral meeting with Karzai or palace visit was planned because the focus of the trip was to thank the troops.

However, Karzai was extended an invitation to come to the base that he declined, which didn’t surprise U.S. officials considering it was “on short notice,” the official said.

An senior administration official said Sunday that Obama called Karzai from Air Force One after departing Afghanistan, according to Reuters. In the call, Obama said he would inform Karzai's successor his plans on how many U.S. troops he wants to keep inside Afghanistan past 2014, the official said.

Obama looks forward to working with Afghanistan's next president after the runoff election is completed next month, the White House official also said.

Obama said the democratic election and the U.S. military’s efforts to thwart terrorism after the 9-11 terror attacks “has come at a heavy price.”

“Tomorrow is Memorial Day," he continued. "At bases here in Afghanistan and towns across America, we will pause and we'll pay tribute to all those who’ve laid down their lives for our freedom.”

At least 2,181 members of the U.S. military have died during the nearly 13-year Afghan war and thousands more have been wounded. There are still about 32,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a high of 100,000 in mid-2010, when as Obama sent in additional soldiers to quell escalating violence.

Upon arriving in Afghanistan on Sunday, Obama was briefed by U.S. commanders and spoke to the troops after a performance by country music star Brad Paisley. He was also scheduled before departing to visit injured troops being treated at a base hospital.

This was Obama's fourth visit to Afghanistan as president but his first since winning re-election in 2012.

As is typical of recent presidential trips to war zones, the White House did not announce Obama's visit in advance. Media traveling with Obama for the 13-hour flight had to agree to keep the trip secret until the president arrived at the air base.

Also making the trip with Obama on Air Force One was National Security Adviser Susan Rice, senior White House adviser John Podesta, whose son is serving in Afghanistan, and adviser Dan Pfeiffer.

Obama also told the troops that as commander in chief he would maintain a strong military.

The president has staked much of his foreign policy philosophy on ending the two wars he inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The final American troops withdrew from Iraq in the closing days of 2011 after the U.S. and Iraq failed to reach a security agreement to keep a small American residual force in the country. In the years that have followed the American withdrawal, Iraq has been battered by resurgent waves of violence.

U.S. officials say they're trying to avoid a similar scenario in Afghanistan. While combat forces are due to depart at the end of this year, Obama administration officials have pressed to keep some troops in Afghanistan after 2014 to continue training the Afghan security forces and undertake counter-terrorism missions.

Pentagon officials have pushed for as many as 10,000 troops; others in the administration favor as few as 5,000 troops. Obama has insisted he will not keep any Americans in Afghanistan without a signed security agreement that would grant those forces immunity from Afghan law.

U.S. officials had hoped plans a post-2014 force would be well underway by this point. But Karzai stunned U.S. officials this year by saying he would not sign the security agreement even though he helped negotiate the terms. Karzai, the only president Afghans have known since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's Islamic rule, was constitutionally barred from running for a third term this year.

The election to choose his successor was held this month, with the top two candidates advancing to the June runoff.

Both of those candidates, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have promised a fresh start with the West and pledged to move ahead with the security pact with the United States.

[Penny Lives 84]

Is this the first presidency you've paid attention to?

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Is this the first presidency you've paid attention to?

You wanna talk about George Washington or Lincoln. What a foolish comment! Somehow I can detect a Bush comment coming.

[Penny Lives 84]

You wanna talk about George Washington or Lincoln. What a foolish comment! Somehow I can detect a Bush comment coming.

I don't want to talk about anyone in particular. I'm just curious as to what sets this presidency apart from any of the others for you in regards to how the president spends his time.

[JohnR! 5,495]

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=122331

Obama Visits U.S. Troops, Leaders in Afghanistan

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2014 – President Barack Obama marked Memorial Day with a visit to U.S. leaders and service members at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama visits troops in on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 25, 2014. Obama thanked the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines for their service. After his speech, he shook hands with each and every member present. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Obama arrived for the unannounced visit last night and is already on his way back to Washington. It was his fourth trip to Afghanistan since taking office, White House officials said. He last visited the country in 2012.

The president met with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. Dunford gave the president a battlefield update. Officials on the trip said the president also discussed U.S. troop levels for the NATO follow-on operation Resolute Support and other post-2014 plans.

The president met with service members and visited wounded troops in the military hospital at Bagram. Brad Paisley, a country singer who accompanied the president, warmed up the crowd for Obama, officials said.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, spoke to reporters on the flight over, according to a pool report from Air Force One.

Rhodes said that the administration saw the trip as “an opportunity for the president to thank American troops and civilians for their service.”

There were no meetings scheduled with either Afghan President Hamid Karzai or the two candidates in the run-off elections in Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah or Ashraf Ghani. Rhodes said that the White House wanted to make sure the trip focused solely on the troops and not internal Afghan politics.

“We have been looking for some period of time to come to Afghanistan,” Rhodes said. “After the first round of the election, we thought it would be a good time to come for a troop-focused visit.”

Rhodes said the president will provide some additional clarity on his thinking about Afghanistan in the next few days.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Nice of him to work the holidays.. Maybe he gets time and a half.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=122331

Obama Visits U.S. Troops, Leaders in Afghanistan

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2014 – President Barack Obama marked Memorial Day with a visit to U.S. leaders and service members at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama was greeted with fleeting applause and extended periods of silence as he offered profuse praise to soldiers and their families during an Aug. 31 speech in Fort Bliss, Texas.

His praise for the soldiers — and for his own national-security policies — won cheers from only a small proportion of the soldiers and families in the cavernous aircraft-hangar.

The audience remains quiet even when the commander-in-chief thanked the soldiers’ families, and cited the 198 deaths of their comrades in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The audience’s reaction was so flat that the president tried twice to elicit a reaction from the crowd.

“Hey, I hear you,” he said amid silence.

The selected soldiers who were arrayed behind the president sat quietly throughout the speech.

CNN and MSNBC ended their coverage of the speech before it was half-over.

The president’s speech to the soldiers is part of his constitutional duties as commander-in-chief.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/31/obama-speech-to-soldiers-met-with-silence/#ixzz32vloJeHs

[JohnR! 5,495]

I don't want to talk about anyone in particular. I'm just curious as to what sets this presidency apart from any of the others for you in regards to how the president spends his time.

+100

Converts are the worst...

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I don't want to talk about anyone in particular. I'm just curious as to what sets this presidency apart from any of the others for you in regards to how the president spends his time.

Lets see. Fast and furious, IRS, Benghazi, NSA.

[JohnR! 5,495]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-arrives-in-afghanistan-on-surprise-visit/2014/05/25/7df61452-e41f-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html

Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

By Scott Wilson, Published: May 25 E-mail the writer

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday for an ­unannounced visit to mark ­Memorial Day with U.S. troops, now in the final months of America’s longest war, and to begin final discussions over the size of the U.S. force that will remain beyond the end of the year.

Inside a cavernous hangar with a tennis-court-size American flag as a backdrop, Obama told a raucous audience of about 3,000 U.S. troops that the American public “stands in awe of you,” grateful for their service and united in support of veterans as they return home.

“For many of you, this will be your last tour in Afghanistan,” Obama said to roars, adding that at the end of the year, “America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.”

“That progress is because of you,” he said, “and the more than half a million Americans — military and civilian — who’ve served here in Afghanistan.”

Obama departed Washington on Saturday night under cover of darkness and arrived at this U.S. base outside Kabul, the capital, under the same secrecy. It was his fourth trip to Afghanistan as president and his first in two years.

The visit lasted less than four hours. But it came at a crossroads moment for Afghanistan’s political transition as the long tenure of President Hamid Karzai winds down and for the Obama administration’s postwar strategy, which advisers say he will begin describing publicly in the coming weeks.

Obama met first with Gen. ­Joseph F. Dunford Jr., commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, and Ambassador James Cunningham to receive a battlefield update and discuss the civilian and military resources needed here after this year to continue training Afghan forces and to assist in specific counterterrorism missions.

Obama will begin outlining those plans Wednesday in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he intends to trace the broader shift underway, more than a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, from an American wartime foreign policy to a postwar one.

“We are at a bit of a turning point in our foreign policy generally,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic ­communications, told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Our foreign policy is going to be a lot different than it has been over the past decade, and the president will speak to what that transition will mean.”

A transition is also underway in Afghanistan, which is in the midst of the first democratic transfer of power in its long history.

Edited May 27, 2014 by Gegel

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

+100

Converts are the worst...

What does kegel mean? I meant gegel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-arrives-in-afghanistan-on-surprise-visit/2014/05/25/7df61452-e41f-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html

Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

By Scott Wilson, Published: May 25 E-mail the writer

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday for an ­unannounced visit to mark ­Memorial Day with U.S. troops, now in the final months of America’s longest war, and to begin final discussions over the size of the U.S. force that will remain beyond the end of the year.

Inside a cavernous hangar with a tennis-court-size American flag as a backdrop, Obama told a raucous audience of about 3,000 U.S. troops that the American public “stands in awe of you,” grateful for their service and united in support of veterans as they return home.

“For many of you, this will be your last tour in Afghanistan,” Obama said to roars, adding that at the end of the year, “America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.”

“That progress is because of you,” he said, “and the more than half a million Americans — military and civilian — who’ve served here in Afghanistan.”

Obama departed Washington on Saturday night under cover of darkness and arrived at this U.S. base outside Kabul, the capital, under the same secrecy. It was his fourth trip to Afghanistan as president and his first in two years.

The visit lasted less than four hours. But it came at a crossroads moment for Afghanistan’s political transition as the long tenure of President Hamid Karzai winds down and for the Obama administration’s postwar strategy, which advisers say he will begin describing publicly in the coming weeks.

Obama met first with Gen. ­Joseph F. Dunford Jr., commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, and Ambassador James Cunningham to receive a battlefield update and discuss the civilian and military resources needed here after this year to continue training Afghan forces and to assist in specific counterterrorism missions.

Obama will begin outlining those plans Wednesday in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he intends to trace the broader shift underway, more than a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, from an American wartime foreign policy to a postwar one.

“We are at a bit of a turning point in our foreign policy generally,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic ­communications, told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Our foreign policy is going to be a lot different than it has been over the past decade, and the president will speak to what that transition will mean.”

A transition is also underway in Afghanistan, which is in the midst of the first democratic transfer of power in its long history.

Left wing rag everyone knows it.

[TBoneTX 45,962]

One quoted post has been removed, because someone altered an original to say what it hadn't said. Continuation of this will result in more than an in-thread warning.

In addition, if digs are to be published in regard to each other, please try to keep them a bit more good-natured than a couple of them have appeared to be. It's optimal to stick to the topic itself. Thanks for your awareness.

VJ Moderation