The last thing I will say, though -- let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. [emphasis added]
An interesting post on The Daily Beast yesterday regarding disappointment that some prominent blacks feel toward President Obama may, ultimately, hurt Dems and Obama in 2010 and 2012.“He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black—and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman,” says Danny Glover. “But what choices do they have within the structure?”
“I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don’t see anything different,” the activist movie actor said of Obama’s policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. “On the domestic side, look here: What’s so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street?”
....
...[S]uch prominent voices as Rep. John Conyers, the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow have been among those taking shots at Obama over his policies, rhetoric, and political positioning.
“He called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him and I had to explain to him that it wasn’t anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues,” Rep. John Conyers told The Hill. “And he said, ‘Well, let’s talk about it.’ ” But the 80-year-old Conyers informed the president that he was in no mood to chat. “I’ve been saying I don’t agree with him on Afghanistan, I think he screwed up on health-care reform, on Guantánamo and kicking Greg off,” Conyers added, referring to the forced resignation of White House counsel Gregory Craig over the Guantánamo prison issue...
“There was an expectation, particularly among African Americans, that the first African-American president would at least be vocal about feeling their pain,” [NYT's] Blow said last week on MSNBC’s Hardball. “I think that has not been the case. The president has given a couple of speeches and he has been very heavy on the stick and not very heavy with the carrot… Just in the inability for him to commiserate with that group of people, people feel a bit deflated… He said he’s not going to focus separately on African-American issues at all. That let a lot of people down.”
“A lot of people are pissed off out there,” said one well-known political player...
[Emphasis added.]Given the anger from the Left on health care and Afghanistan, combined with African American disappointment, it appears Obama is alienating more of his base...the base that he (and Democrats) will need to rely on in 2010 and 2012 to get out and vote.
Obama touted the success of his stimulus and economic recovery efforts so far this year and endorsed a series of new ideas, including tax cuts for small business, new infrastructure spending on highways, rail and other projects, and a so-called “cash for caulkers” program that would give rebates to people who retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.Apparently, other than a photo op, last weeks' faux-jobs summit where it appeared only one businessman had the
Obama’s remarks represent a sort of political doubling down on the idea of federal stimulus spending. Indeed many of the ideas he mentioned are extensions of or additional funding for, items that were included in his $787 billion stimulus package earlier in the year.
President Obama, albeit for other reasons than cited below, has earned himself a new nickname: The Kamikaze-in-Chief. [To read Ralph Reiland's reasons for POTUS' new nickname, go here.]It's not just Fox News that's become subject of White House derision. The following is an excerpt from a joke e-mail that is circulating among White House staffers. It's a response, of sorts, to the analytical essay that POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris wrote about the "seven stories that Barack Obama doesn't want told."....
...But make no mistake: many on the White House senior staff dislike POLITICO's brand of journalism, and they do not like the effect that POLITICO's metabolism has on the rest of the press corps, including this (i.e., my own) corner of it...._______________
7 narratives politico is fighting in their efforts to get an interview with the President
1. They are more interested in readers than accuracy
2. Its okay to be wrong everyonce in a while, if your are the first to break the news
3. More interested in gossip than news
4. A spouter of the worst sort of insider conventional wisdom
5. Their analysis about obama has been wrong more than any one
6. Click ... period
7. More obsessed with personality than policy
Virginia Democratic candidate R. Creigh Deeds said Friday that he was confused and frustrated by statements from senior aides to President Obama that Deeds had rejected their advice in running his campaign for governor as some state party activists denounced what they saw as a betrayal by advisers to a president they helped elect a year ago.Bye, bye, Deeds. You've been abandoned by your party's Organizer-in-Chief.
There are some that are positively giddy over the prospects of the 2010 mid-terms, thinking that our country can turn back the tide of Marxism that has begun to sweep across America.Congressional switchboards were bombarded on Tuesday with over 300,000 calls from supporters of Barack Obama's plan for health care reform....
The event was a part of a national call-in day billed as "time to deliver" by Obama's political arm, Organizing for America (OFA). OFA is the Obama campaign transformed into a political organization that is housed in the DNC in Washington, DC.
DNC Chairman and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said that OFA is the largest department in the Democratic National Committee, with staff in 48 states. Kaine said that when he assumed the chair of the DNC, OFA was not part of the DNC, but that now it is the heart of the organization.
In the past, incumbents had begun to raise money and set their agenda for re-election early in their terms of office. The difference here is that Obama is cranking up the ground game before his first year is over. He will already have a national field campaign in full gear before the off-term elections, a move that could help him avoid the usual losses the party in the White House usually suffers. OFA may also emerge as the most powerful voice in 2016. A candidate with access to OFA's organizational strength will have a huge leg up.
While there is a grassroots model in place, the agenda will come from the top.
While it would be ideal for the agenda to come from the grass roots, in this case, since the glue that holds the organization together is Barack Obama, from an effectiveness standpoint it makes sense for the organization to organize around his agenda. Many national organizations fizzle when the leader who formed them moves on. Case in point, has anyone heard from the Reform Party lately? Once Ross Perot was gone, there was brief life as they fought over the money the party had coming in matching funds, but once the money was gone, so was their momentum.
OFA Still Has Paid Staff in 48 States
Florida has seven paid staff statewide. OFA's Miami Dade Regional Field Director Brad Schenk described the model structure of the organization, which he said was the campaign's model in Iowa in 2007. Neighborhood groups would form and chose captains and team leaders, who would report to a community organizer responsible for multiple neighborhoods. The community organizer communicates with the field office. From there, information continues on up straight to the national office at the DNC in Washington.
The goal would be to have the neighborhood groups extremely well organized; they would have their own phone banks, canvas operations and events. The campaign would provide the neighborhood groups access to data from the 2008 campaign. This is extremely important. In the past, campaigns guarded their lists, but in this case, volunteers in the community will have access to data that will allow them to organize their neighborhoods. Picture the old Chicago model with block captains all over the country.
Schenk described the organization as progressive, but not radical. He said that while the organization will hold rallies, they would not pull off stunts that could make the organization look bad. When others argued that the "tea baggers" were succeeding, Schenk countered by saying that they were hurting, not helping, their cause, going on to say that they were "polarizing the Republican Party."
All of OFA's resources are currently focused on the health care fight and it is an issue that is easy to rally around. The true test will come when OFA is focusing on an issue or supporting a candidate that its supporters are not excited about. The organization has daily access to the Oval Office, it is in transition right now, working hard to reactivate the foot soldiers from the 2008 campaign. If Tuesday's effort is any indication, they are succeeding. The result could give Obama a more powerful political arm than even the two major political parties themselves.
"...there are some positive things coming out of this surprise award. Big Guy is actually thinking that now that he's won the Nobel, he might take a call from the Dalai Lama now that the Dalai is his almost his equal. I say "almost" because, the Lama won his for bringing world attention to the plight of the Tibetan people. That's not quite as great an effort as the one Big Guy exerted to draw world attention to himself."
Lastly, there is the London Times response:
And that is all that we can add to this topic!
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Newspapers are running rampant with stories of the weakening dollar, gold is at an all time high and, rightfully so, people are beginning to get concerned. While President Obama is drawing some fire over the dollar's plunge, it is a story on the Daily Beast which caught our attention."...think what a weaker dollar does for the industrial heartland, where so many congressional seats will be in play and where today it’s easier to export or compete against imports because the same dollar costs convert into fewer euros, yen, or renminbi (this is what a “weaker” dollar means—foreigners can more easily afford our goods and their stuff is more expensive to us). If the dollar stays weak or declines further, our car companies, machinery makers, and turbine blade manufacturers will soon be rehiring and we’ll finally get some job growth as part of our sputtering economic recovery."
Hmmm. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? So, the question then becomes, is Ben Bernacke and Tim Geitner purposefully devaluing the dollar on the global markets to help Democrats win the mid-term elections?
Does anyone else smell a trap?
This morning, Drudge Report posted as its main header: 10 TROOPS KILLED IN DEADLIEST BATTLE OF YEAR. The story posted tells of 10 U.S. servicemen killed in two separate incidents:Ten American troops were killed at the weekend in two surprise attacks that caused alarm in Nato’s US-led coalition.
In one, hundreds of insurgents attacked a pair of isolated outposts in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight US soldiers and several Afghan policemen in the deadliest battle in 15 months. Scores more Afghan policemen were reportedly captured by the Taleban.
In the other an Afghan policeman opened fire on the American soldiers with whom he was working in central Wardak province, killing two and injuring three.
It was unclear whether the policeman was working for the Taleban or simply ran amok but the attack fuelled the distrust that many Nato soldiers already feel for the Afghan security forces that they are supposed to be working with and training as part of the coalition’s eventual exit strategy.
To that end, military commanders are making their views known:
By openly declaring their views on the Afghan war, US military leaders have placed President Barack Obama in a bind as he faces a fraught decision over the troubled US-led mission.
Obama has refused to quickly approve a request from his commanders for a major troop build-up in Afghanistan, insisting first on a full vetting of the current strategy.
But while a war council takes place behind closed doors at the White House, top military officers have made no secret of their view that without a vast ground force, the Afghan mission could end in failure.
"They want to make sure people know what they asked for if things go wrong," Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense, told AFP.
As a result, if Obama chooses to change course in Afghanistan or decline a request for large numbers of troops, he will be rejecting the advice of the US military, raising the political stakes.
Commentators on the left say the military ought to keep its advice private without trying to influence public debate, with New York Times columnist Frank Rich accusing the generals of an attempt to "try to lock him (Obama) in" on Afghanistan.
....
The White House meanwhile acknowledged some members of Obama's team have been reading "Lessons in Disaster," a book about flawed decision-making in the
Vietnam war.In the book, author Gordon Goldstein suggests the late president John F. Kennedy, if he had lived, would have rejected the military's demand for combat troops in Vietnam -- as he had lost faith in his generals' advice after the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba.
"Perhaps this is Obama's JFK moment," George Packer of the New Yorker wrote
in his blog. "We?ll know in a few weeks."
The problem for the President and his allies on the Left is that Afghanistan is, as Obama himself has said, the "appropriate war" and, just as importantly, Afghanistan is NOT Vietnam.
Unlike Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda, Ho Chi Minh never had North Vietnamese live in 'sleeper-cell' clusters throughout the U.S., nor did Ho Chi Minh send covert operators to commit more than 3,000 mass murders on American soil.
Unlike Afghanistan, Vietnam was never used as a base from which to dispatch terrorists all over the world.
Unlike Al Quaeda and its Taliban abettors in Afghanistan, Vietnam was never really a direct threat to America and its citizens.
If the President chooses to ignore the threat of Afghanistan by ignoring the commanders on the ground, America and its allies will leave the entire world open to more terrorist attacks which could easily make 9/11 pale in comparison.
As America's Campaigner-in-Chief returned home empty handed from Copenhagen, where his herculean effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago ended in global humiliation and failure, his critics and pundits have, thus far, missed a few big recipients who would have benefited from the extravagant campaign (at taxpayer expense) to snag the games for Chi-Town.If there is one Olympic city for Chicago to emulate, it would be Atlanta. The city's $1.7 billion privately funded Summer Games in 1996 sparked a construction boom in the city's downtown core and, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, generated $5 billion in economic activity, including $1.8 billion in hotel, residential and commercial construction.Since Chicago would have spent nearly three times the amount Atlanta spent (assuming no union cost over runs occurred), it is likely they assumed the amount of money made would be three times its investment, or about $15 billion, which translates into the hundreds of millions in union dues.
Hypocritical acts attached to this venture are endless. The mere appearance of the Commander in Chief jet-setting to Copenhagen simultaneously to soldiers coming home in body bags from Afghanistan (the appropriate war) while his general, McCrystal, waits and waits and waits on an answer to a request over a month old is nothing short of criminal neglect. This ineptitude piled on to the arrogance of his wife, a woman who has benefited all her adult life from the sacrifice of other Americans for her ivy-league education, the education she used to flunk the Bar the first time, only to eventually pass and practice law for all of a nanosecond opting instead to ride her husband’s political coat tails along the corrupt avenues of Chicago. Fancy. [Read the rest of Ms. Keller's piece here.]So, as Americans die overseas and more and more lose their jobs back home, we taxpayers will be stuck with the multi-million dollar tab of a president and his entourage campaigning to pay back his supporters.
America, take solace. For those who lament the fact that President Barack Obama is turning the country inside out, here's one consolation: It could have been worse.
That something else turns out to be Edwards' former aide-turned-spurned-lapdog, Andrew Young.When John Edwards returned to North Carolina in the course of his long quest for the presidency, Andrew Young always met him at the airport in Edwards’s big black Chevy Tahoe. Young drove, and Edwards rode shotgun, silently raising his left hand whenever he wanted a Diet Coke, which Young would wordlessly supply.Ouch. But it gets harsher from there...
Young sometimes described himself as Edwards’s “special assistant” and dreamed of serving in an Edwards White House. Other aides, with a combination of disgust — and, perhaps, a bit of envy — referred to him as Edwards’s “personal servant,” or worse, Edwards’s “butt boy.”Politico goes on to explain the Edwards affair with new mommy Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth Edwards' suspicion and jealousy, all set against a backdrop of Andrew Young's self-sacrifice for his version of "John Kennedy."
“He believed that Edwards was the next Kennedy,” said a person who was close to Young. “It’s not enough to say that he idolized the guy — there’s something deeper and weirder than that.”
....
First he was the fall guy, and now he’s the sellout, peddling his story in a tell-all book. But the real story of Young is about the passions of politics and the classic political triangle of the candidate, his wife and the sometimes sycophantic aide.
If you thought Barry & Co. was bad, one can only imagine what it would have been like if the former North Carolina senator had made it all the way to the White House.
Go here to read the entire Politico piece.
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Among President Barack Obama's most ardent fans is America's youth. That is, until now.
As videos circulate around the internet and on cable news showing children singing propaganda-(ad)ministered praises to President Barack Obama, the Teacher-in-Chief is making a new proposal that is sure to cause his poll numbers to plummet, especially among America's youngsters.
The President wants kids to stay in school later and longer, according to the Associated Press.
Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.Of course, the Teacher-in-Chief and his minions may just have an ulterior motive:
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
....
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.
But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.
Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs. [Emphasis added.]
We're sure this proposal from our Teacher-in-Chief is going to really sit well with all his suburban soccer-mom fans as they field the whining complaints from their state-controlled kids.
NOTE: Dienekes' Place will be focus group-testing the President's proposal tonight...Of course, not until after school is out and the homework is done.
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If you doubt the government's intent to control your body and your health care, consider this:This doesn't happen often enough.
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.
Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."
The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.
It has become a cacaphony from the Left: Opposition to President Barack Obama's policies is rooted in racism.[A]n underlying sense of nervousness and concern about the shifting political landscape in the eight months since Obama was sworn in. The sudden explosion of tea party groups, with right-wing protesters carrying signs depicting Obama as an African witch doctor or in a Nazi uniform, has infuriated some black lawmakers, who say such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated for a white president. [Emphasis added.]
A quick google image search of the words "Bush" and "Hitler" yield over two million hits. 
Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst of "You Lie!" during Barack Obama's health care pitch to Congress and America has become the rallying cry of both the Left and the Right!So, there you have it. President Obama's plan does exclude illegal aliens BUT, he wants illegal aliens to be legalized so they do get the benefits of nationalized health care.President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.
He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered - a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.
"Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don't simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken," Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
"That's why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan, just like everybody else.
Mr. Obama added, "If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all."
