You might have heard that President Obama (finally) gave a speech about the shelling of Libya he ordered well over a week ago. Or, you might not have; he’s been trying pretty hard to keep our involvement in it out of the public eye, despite the US having the leading role in every phase of this “kinetic military action” except (1) decision-making, and (2) actually | Read More »
Update by Jeff 3/20/11 22:15: According to Jake Tapper, it now appears that SecDef Gates is warning against setting any goals for this action whatsoever. How’s that for clarity and sound military strategy? Update by Jeff 3/20/11 18:10: The muddling continues, as it’s being reported that SecDef Gates, who initially opposed any action in Libya, is now opposing any action that would specifically target Qaddafi. | Read More »
Talking of “Bush tax cuts” at this point, as so many seem to do when discussing the change in tax policy set to go into force this coming New Years Day, is beyond absurd. What’s coming on Jan. 1, 2011 is the Obama Tax Increase — no less than the largest tax increase in our history, courtesy of a president who, last Tax Day, declared | Read More »
The world, always an interesting place, has not disappointed for news in the last few weeks. Below are some thoughts on just a few recent events. President Obama appeared this morning, the 87th day of the Gulf oil spill, to discuss the spill and BP’s relief efforts. According to the Heritage Foundation, today was the first time since June 22 that Obama had publicly acknowledged | Read More »
By now, you’ve heard or seen the news: President Obama (D-IL) has accepted the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who had until now been in charge of the coalition’s erstwhile efforts in Afghanistan, and is attempting to demote General David Betray Us Petraeus from CENTCOM commander to czar of the eastern front of the Global War on Terror Isolated Effort to Diplomatically Prevent Man-Caused, Non-Islam-Related | Read More »
This video pretty well captures the Summit *I* saw. Be sure to watch all the way to the end for the money quote from Gergen. OPEN THREAD
According to the AFP (emphasis added): Barack Obama was urged by his doctor Sunday to quit smoking for good after his first health check-up as US president found him otherwise in “excellent health” and “fit for duty.” [...] Under his recommendations, [Obama's personal physician Jeffrey] Kuhlman urged the president to “continue smoking cessation efforts” and noted Obama was medicating himself with nicotine supplements in a | Read More »
Let’s cut right to the chase: Scott Brown’s resounding defeat of Martha Coakley demonstrates many things. Chief among these is the vulnerability of every Democrat in the current election year, the impotence of the Democrats’ current leader and sitting President to sway public opinion in any vital race (Corzine, Deeds, Coakley….), and the true unpopularity of the health care monstrosity the Democratic supermajority has been | Read More »
Please excuse the disorganization — and lack of paragraph phormat — in this post; it’s just a dump of a few things that have been bouncing around in my head since the Christmas attack (and, in some cases, longer). For years, Democrats have told us that one of the biggest problems in America is that we’re not taken care of well enough by our government. | Read More »
Handed a top-to-bottom review of, and a revised strategy for, this long-ignored front in the Global War on Terror by the outgoing Bush administration, President Barack Obama stepped to the microphone in February and gave a platitudinous speech that echoed precisely what his predecessor had said in the last months of his own presidency. When that speech alone failed to miraculously make the war in | Read More »
See it for yourself below, as Bill Burton, a spokesman for Barack Obama’s White House, says: I don’t think that Speaker Pelosi was just claiming that people were wearing swastikas [at health care town hall meetings]; people are showing up to events with swastikas, dressed up as Hitler, with signs invoking Nazi Germany, so that’s not something that’s being made up. Video: The DC Examiner‘s | Read More »
The “Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009″ imposes a “surtax,” or income tax increase, on all Americans making $280,000 a year or more. Under the bill, those making $280,000 ($350,000 for couples) will have their taxes increased by 1 percentage point, those making $400,000 ($500,000 for couples) by 1.5 percentage points, and those making more than $800,000 ($1 million for couples) by 5.4 percentage points. | Read More »
The New Testament book of Matthew contains a well-known allegorical tale known as the “Parable of the Ten Talents.” In this story, Jesus told of a man who entrusted his property to three servants while he was away. One servant was given five silver talents; another two; and a third one. The first two servants put that which their master had given them to good | Read More »
I don’t know if I’ve seen a worse public speaker in my lifetime more lionized for his public speaking ability than President Barack Obama (D-IL). The homage paid to him by pundits and anchors across the country for his supposedly unique combination of intelligence and eloquence is shown almost by the day to be as misplaced as effusive praise for Vice President Joe Biden’s (D-Slave | Read More »
The latest report from Rasmussen shows only 42% of Americans now support Congressional Democrats’ and President Obama’s proposal for a government-centric overhaul of the American health care system. This poll shows that the decline in support for the President’s plan, which began in earnest in late June, has continued unabated. Two months ago, support for the Obama/Kennedy/Pelosi health care overhaul stood at 50%; in July, | Read More »
House Resolution 3200, the “Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” fulfills President Barack Obama’s promise that “If you like your health plan, you can keep it” – technically. Under the Democrat-sponsored bill, existing insurance policies are “grandfathered” into the new, overhauled national health care system, meaning that you have the option to keep your health coverage plan and provider even if they don’t conform to | Read More »
Bob Hahn’s comment to my earlier post about Organizing/Obama for America’s call for supporters to flood legislative offices in an effort to create the appearance of support for the very unpopular health overhaul proposal got me thinking. Here’s Bob’s comment: What if nobody cares? This is a pretty risky maneuver by the White House. If it doesn’t work — if supporters do not show up | Read More »
As ordinary citizens across the country continue to ratchet up their level of interest and activity in the legislative process, President Obama and his campaign arm, Organizing (formerly “Obama”) For America, are struggling to cope with the tufts of grass sprouting up in the midst of their carefully astroturfed national field. Last week, in what may have been the first instance of an American government | Read More »
With well over half of America firmly in opposition to the Obama/Kennedy/Pelosi health overhaul plan, Democrats are grasping at anything they can possibly find to reassure themselves that they are still both right and representative of the “collective American will” on this and myriad other issues. To that end, Jen O’Malley Dillon, executive director of the Democratic National Committee, sent an email to supporters this | Read More »
As President Obama called on his activists around the country to attend “thousands of events this month” in an effort to convince legislators that they, not the 55% of voters who oppose the Obama/Kennedy/Pelosi health care overhaul proposals, represent the majority of Americans (or, as a DailyKos diarist put it, “the collective will of the American people”), the Democratic National Committee was releasing an ad | Read More »
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