Barack Obama

Author Of Hyped Iraq Memo Also Wrote Unhinged Attack On Health-Care Reform

Zachary Roth | July 30, 2009, 1:07PM

A senior American military adviser in Baghdad, whose memo arguing that the U.S. should leave Iraq is currently the top story on the New York Times website, is also the author of an unhinged online screed against health-care reform.

The health-care post, by Colonel Timothy Reese, sketches far-fetched scenarios about forced abortions and accuses President Obama of being "deceitful" in telling Americans they can keep their doctor under his plan. Its harsh tone raises questions about an active duty officer inserting himself into the political arena. And it suggests that that his widely-publicized military advice -- which was posted on the same blog as the health-care post -- should perhaps be treated more skeptically than is currently being done.

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Barack Obama

Beat Goes On For Florida Doc: McKalip To Step Down As AMA Delegate

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 6:00PM

The fallout from David McKalip's racist email showing President Obama as a witch doctor continues.

A Florida newspaper reports that the prominent St. Petersburg neurosurgeon has said he'll step down from the influential post of delegate to the American Medical Association, saying "I think people will wonder if they can trust me."

The AMA position gave McKalip a role in shaping the national platform of the doctor's lobby. The AMA yesterday had issued a statement distancing itself from the email.

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Barack Obama

Top Anti-Reform Group Working Closely With McKalip, Tea Partiers

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 4:11PM

David McKalip, whose racist email showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor triggered a barrage of outrage, has worked closely in recent weeks with one of the leading organized efforts to stop health-care reform.

After we posted McKalip's racist email yesterday, he sent a message to several online discussion groups attacking what he saw as "race baiting by Obama camp" and accusing TPM of "painting me as a racist." In addition to the Tea Party group to which he had sent the original image, that second message also went to an address for a discussion group run by Conservatives for Patients Rights, the prominent anti-reform group founded and bankrolled by multimillionaire former hospital CEO Rick Scott, and spotlighted in May by the Washington Post.

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Barack Obama

Tea Party Leader To McKalip: "We All Have Your Back My Friend!"

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 2:53PM

The national coordinator of the American Tea Party movement is standing behind David McKalip and has pledged her help as he struggles with the fallout over the racist email he sent showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor.

In an email exchange on the Tea Party listserv, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Amy Kremer wrote:

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David McKalip

McKalip Quits As Medical Association President

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 1:42PM

David McKalip is resigning as president-elect of the Pinellas County Medical Association.

In a resignation letter reported on by the St. Petersburg Times, McKalip wrote:

I believe that it would be in the best interests of the Pinellas County Medical Association and its mission to serve patients, if I step down from the association at this time.

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David McKalip

Citing Email Flap, McKalip Says He'll Withdraw From Public Debate Over Healthcare

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 12:40PM

Dr. David McKalip has told fellow conservative activists that thanks to the flap over his racist email showing President Obama as a witch doctor, he will no longer appear publicly in opposition to health-care reform.

"For now, in the interest of protecting this movement from any collateral damage, I am withdrawing from making media appearances on health system reform," McKalip wrote this morning in an email -- obtained by TPMmuckraker -- to fellow members of an online health-care discussion group affiliated with the Tea Party movement. The email went to the same recipients to which McKalip sent the original racist email.

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David McKalip

Rubio Won't Say Whether He'll Sever Ties With McKalip

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 11:05AM

Are David McKalip's political allies backing away from him -- despite his apology for sending a racist email depicting President Obama as a witch doctor?

A spokesman for Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Marco Rubio declined to tell TPMmuckraker whether Rubio would continue to work with McKalip, who last month co-hosted a $500-per-person fundraiser for Rubio at the Grand Bellagio Clubhouse in Clearwater.

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Barack Obama

McKalip: I'm No Racist -- I Once Had A Career Counseling Day For Black Kids

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 9:12AM

More McKalip fallout:

The Florida Medical Association yesterday condemned McKalip's racist email and called on him to apologize to the president:

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Racism

Doctor On Racist Obama Email: "I Sincerely Apologize"

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 8:49AM

David McKalip -- the Florida neurosurgeon and healthcare reform opponent who sent a racist email showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor with a loin cloth and a bone through his nose, which was posted yesterday by TPMmuckraker -- has apologized directly to the president.

Through a P.R. representative, McKalip put out the following statement:

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Racism

Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama As Witch Doctor

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 10:34AM

The election of our first black president has brought with it a strange proliferation of online racism among conservatives.

And we've got the latest example.

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Barack Obama

Yet More Obama Secrecy: Won't Release Info On Visits From Health-Care Execs

Zachary Roth | July 22, 2009, 10:06AM

And the beat goes on....

Here's the latest example of the Obama White House mimicking its predecessor's reflexive preference for secrecy over openness: the administration has turned down a request from a good-government group to release the names of the health-industry execs who have gone to the White House to discuss health-care reform, reports the Los Angeles Times.

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Barack Obama

Holder May Investigate Torture -- But Several Probes Are Already Underway

Zachary Roth | July 13, 2009, 2:34PM

The pendulum appears to have swung back in the other direction on the issue of criminal investigations into Bush-era torture. It had looked for a while like President Obama's stated desire to look forward not back had carried the day. But now it appears that Attorney General Eric Holder -- independent of his boss's political concerns, which is how things should work -- is leaning back towards initiating a probe. The news was first reported over the weekend by Newsweek, then picked up today by the New York Times and Washington Post.

But whatever Holder ultimately decides, there are already several ongoing government efforts to investigate torture, which figure to substantially fill out our still patchwork understanding of the issue. So as we wait for official word from the Justice Department on a criminal inquiry, it's worth being clear about what those efforts are, and how they relate to each other.

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Hans von Spakovsky

Spakovsky Likely Headed Back To Voting Rights Agency, In Volunteer Post

Zachary Roth | July 9, 2009, 4:42PM

The US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) is scheduled to vote tomorrow on the nomination of Republican voter-suppression guru Hans Von Spakovsky to a state-level body that advises the commission.

Lenore Ostrowsky, a spokeswoman for the USCCR -- whose mission is to defend voting rights -- confirmed to TPMmuckraker that commissioners will vote at a Friday morning meeting on Spakovsky's nomination to the State Advisory Committee for Virginia, where he lives. According to a source, it is likely that Spakovsky's nomination will be approved.

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Gerald Walpin

Mass Of New Docs Support White House Reasons For Firing AmeriCorps IG

Zachary Roth | July 3, 2009, 1:42PM

As we noted yesterday, the Washington Post has published the documents turned over by the Corporation for National and Community Service to a Senate committee reviewing the White House's firing of AmeriCorps IG. Conservatives had charged that the IG, Gerald Walpin, was canned for going too hard after an Obama ally.

We've taken a look through the documents, and it's fair to say they offer a pretty clear picture of how and why the CNCS board lost confidence in Walpin. They jibe closely with what the White House and the board have already said -- to us, among others -- about the deterioration of the relationship between the IG and his agency. And they also make clear that this deterioration had begun long before the Obama administration existed.

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Gerald Walpin

WaPo Publishes Docs On AmeriCorps IG Firing

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 6:17PM

Yesterday we told you about new documents which shed more light on the White House's decision to fire AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin.

And now, the Washington Post has published the complete set of documents, which were recently turned over by the Corporation for National and Community Service to a Senate committee reviewing the firing.

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Barack Obama

CIA Again Delays Release Of Key Torture Report

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 5:49PM

The release of the long-awaited CIA inspector general report on torture has been postponed once again.

The ACLU, which is suing to have the report released, just announced that the government is asking for yet another postponement on the date of the report's release -- this time, until August 31. The CIA had earlier said it would release the report June 19. That was then pushed back to June 26, and then again to July 1.

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Barack Obama

More Obama Secrecy -- This Time On Cheney's Plame Interview

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 2:46PM

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised at this point. But the latest example of the Obama administration mimicking the Bushies in opting for secrecy over openness feels like one of the most infuriating yet.

The Justice Department is declining to release Dick Cheney's interview with federal investigators looking into the Valerie Plame leak, arguing -- as it did under President Bush -- that doing so would discourage future high-level officials from cooperating with criminal investigations.

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Detainees

Obama Won't Rule Out Indefinite Detention for Terror Suspects

Rachel Slajda | July 2, 2009, 1:50PM

President Obama will not rule out detaining terror suspects indefinitely, although he says it "gives me huge pause."

Obama, while saying he isn't comfortable using executive orders to detain prisoners, wouldn't rule it out during an interview with The Associated Press.

But he also said there are some detainees who don't fall neatly into existing categories for criminal prosecution in the United States or under international law. He said dealing with them is going to be one of the biggest challenges of his administration.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Detainees, Guantanamo

Barack Obama

Rep. Barton: Obama Should Be Worried About "Carbongate"

Pete Martin | July 2, 2009, 12:25PM

Yesterday we wrote about Environmental Protection Agency economist Al Carlin, the author of a report that casts doubt on climate change. Carlin's study wasn't taken as seriously by the agency as he'd been hoping -- perhaps because he's not a scientist, and because his bosses never asked him to produce it.

But his cause has become a favorite of right-wingers, who suddenly believe science to be sacred, and are charging that the Obama administration is "suppressing" a report whose conclusions it dislikes. The anti-regulatory Competitive Enterprise Institute first publicized Carlin's report last week. Since then, Carlin has discussed his "findings" with Glenn Beck on Fox News, and on Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for a criminal investigation into the issue.

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