That’s the explanation coming out of the White House this week — Republicans played politics with the issue, and the president had no other choice, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

“In terms of Keystone, as you all know, the history here is pretty clear,” Carney told reporters Tuesday at his regular press briefing.

“And the fact is because Republicans decided to play political with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline,” Carney said.

Carney’s assertion was challenged by ABC News’ Jake Tapper, who questioned how Obama could claim to have an “all-of-the-above approach” to energy production if he “turned down” the pipeline permit. “And you blame the Republicans for making it political?” Tapper asked.

Carney’s response: “But the president didn’t turn down the Keystone pipeline. There was a process in place, with long precedent, run out of the State Department because of the issue of the pipeline crossing an international boundary, that required an amount of time for proper, for review, after an alternate route was deemed necessary through Nebraska at the request of the Republican governor of Nebraska and other stakeholders in Nebraska and the region that needed to play out, to be done appropriately. You can’t review and approve a pipeline, the route for which doesn’t even exist.”

The pipeline has been reviewed and delayed by the Obama administration for three years to make sure it met environmental safety standards and was in the country’s national interest. When the president tried to delay his final decision on the project for another year — and after his re-election campaign — Republicans forced the issue passing a law requiring that he make a decision before the end of February.

Obama, who has been under increasing pressure by the environmental community to stop the project, made his decision in January, and said “no.” It is not in the country’s best interest, it turns out, to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to Texas to bring oil to the U.S. and create 20,000 jobs.

And besides, it’s the Republicans’ fault Obama had to say no.

—Audrey Hudson

If they make it home without being killed, I will be surprised. Al Qaeda has begun a serious recruitment drive and propaganda campaign to smear the americans.

Fajr

Howie, pointed out the insensitivity of white solders to OTWs by their use of the Nazi flag symbols. It is the high command of the US military who is still filled with bigots, misogynists, racists, and sick old men.

If the top made it clear that they would not tolerate bigoted behavior by the troops, the white boys would not be making those types of insensitive errors.

This could really blow up in America’s face. Many will use it to undermine all the GOOD your country has done and is trying to do under Obama.

For the first time, the hate mongers have an opening to declare Obama evil. This is just not good because we in the Middle East need such a man to help lead us out of the dictatorial state of affairs we have been in for decades.

Asima

Brie

Suggestion do not get caught in our wake, we do not have the time we used in the past to keep from extinguishing the flow of power your primitive jet engines need to continue firing.

Your engines will shut down and you will crash or be forced to land without engine power. We will continue to use the corridor between Guam and Saipan.

//43e