The President's Weekly Address: Merry Christmas from the President & First Lady

From the White House blog:

President Obama and the First Lady wish families across the country a “Merry Christmas” and encourage everyone to support the troops and their families this holiday season. Visit www.serve.gov to find ideas for what you can do to help our servicemen and women and their families.

I would like to add my wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season, no matter whom or what you worship, I wish you peace and happiness.

Yes We Can starring Boehner saying No You Can't

This is wonderful and I hope they make a campaign ad out of it.. Take it and post it and play it over and over. Get the hits up on it.. We need to rub the Tan Man's face in it as much as we can.



Great Stuff...

h/t The Political Carnival and Shannyn Moore.

The Bill Is Signed.. Now on to the Senate.

History is being made today. President Obama signs the Health Care Reform Bill into Law.... Now on to the Senate and the finalization of the Law of the Land.

Here is video of the President's remarks and the signing of the bill.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is not the end, this is the beginning... Now we continue on making changes and updates to this Legislation. We, all of us... have to keep pushing Congress to make this better over time, just as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and Civil Rights. Even now, almost 50 years after Civil Rights was passed, we are still fine tuning it. This will be the same for Health Care. We can't give up now. We have to keep fighting to make this better.

We have to rally people to vote in November to keep Democratic Leaders in there and make sure we can pass additional reforms and more Progressive Legislation which needs to be done.

Yes We Can and Yes We Did.

It has passed.. 219-212 Health Care Reform is now going to the President for signing. It has been reported he will sign it Tuesday morning, just before the Senate starts working on the amendments.

Here is Pres. Obama's statement after the passage of this bill.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Like I stated and they chanted on the floor of the House after passage..... Yes We Can.

Thank you Pres. Obama and the Democrats who voted for this bill. Thank You Speaker Pelosi and all the other members of the House who worked so hard to get this done.

Please Read Frank Schaeffer's Post

Frank Schaeffer has a new post up today that is a must read for us all. He lists some of the accomplishments of the past year and reminds us all of how we felt just over a year ago at the time of the election and the inaugural

Some of the people on the left have been as damaging to President Obama as those on the right. Maybe even more. Now is not the time to abandon the President. Now is the time to rally around and support him even more or as much as we did before. Yet, that is what is happening. I have posted on this before and so has Frank.

Once again, he is asking people to stop and think about what they are doing, saying and thinking about before they run their mouths and put down the President, for not doing enough for them.

Read his post, which you can find by clicking here: Frank Schaeffer's Blog. And you can even leave him a comment and let him know what you think.

You can leave me one to if you are so inclined. He comes here sometimes and reads and comments when I link to him. Which I always appreciate.

So, take a minute to read his post and think before you put down the man we put in the White House. Thanks all.

Sick and Tired of the Infighting

I promised a new post last week… well here it is. It has taken me a while because I had to formulate it in my mind and in my heart before I could write it.

I have really been hurt and angry over some of the stuff I have seen and read. Oh the stuff from Jane Hamsher and some of the so called rabid left I have long come to expect. It is from so many of you, who have decided now that the President is a failure, he needs to fire his staff, you can’t support him unless he does this or that. He needs to be primaried in 2012, it just goes on and on.

Then the President does something you like and it is all roses again… You know that is what I have always heard called “Fair Weather Fans”.

It just seems you can’t make up your mind whether you like him or not. Now I am not saying you have to be his cheerleader constantly. But to call for a primary against him today, then praise him tomorrow. That is just a little over the top. No wonder the Republicans are getting such a foot hold with people.

When the Democrats can’t stand together, and stand behind our President, why would the Republican’s want to support him? Why would the Independent’s support him?

Just one of the things I saw everyone having a hissy fit over was the President’s proposal of a spending freeze. Everyone on the left was up in arms over this, without even knowing what he was fully considering. No one had read it, no one knew the details, they just knew it was a bad deal and so they attacked.

First it doesn’t take effect for another year. Second, it is very strictly targeted and will be just as he promised in the campaign, a scalpel, not a hatchet. It is not so much a freeze as a reorganization of the budget. He is going to take out programs that don’t work and waste money, and then use that money that is saved for programs that need it. That makes sense to me… How anyone can’t see this as a good thing doesn’t understand how budgets work.

Matt Osborne, at OsborneInk did a wonderful piece on this. Here is some of what he said about it and how everyone is reacting.

But perhaps this “move to the right” isn’t what it seems? Obama froze administration salaries, which doesn’t add up to much but certainly has the right optics. Noting that details are still unknown and the freeze will not affect health care reform or a second stimulus, Oliver Willis makes a strong argument that the oh noes are premature:
I don’t personally like the framing of these issues in one that favors conservatives, that is a fight versus government spending. Not at all, and in an ideal situation a Democratic president should laugh at the idea, knowing that everyone with common sense understands the long term value of government investment in the American economy and social safety net.
We do not live in this ideal world. We live in a world where, as I noted above, the people across the spectrum hold contradictory ideas within their own minds about what constitutes rational public policy. If some are concerned with spending, it seems the least harmful way to do this is to have a bone thrown their way that will actually lower *some* spending without harming the president’s domestic agenda.
Is it less perfect than a pony? Sure. Would President Jed Bartlett do it? Probably not, but real life isn’t a pitch-perfect Aaron Sorkin script and a fade out after 60 minutes of plot.
Put another way, I’d suggest that this is more of the same nuanced empiricism that makes lefties scream about “unclear” Afghanistan withdrawal dates and the public option. I’m willing to lay odds the whole thing will be forgotten a year from now — in fact, if the Senate passes a public option through reconciliation no one will be talking about this the next week.

Frank Schaeffer weighed in on this entire thing with his anger too, and I have to say he took you all to task much more than I did. But he was my inspiration. Here is Mr. Schaeffer's entire post.. It is almost a letter to you all... I would hope you read it and take it to heart.. Of course I believe some of you are suffering from the same syndrome as Limpballs has... Anticardiocitis... No heart.. That almost has to be what it is.. because you are the only opinion that matters and you can't see anything except what you write and you don't care what anyone else points out they are wrong and YOU are correct.

Anti-Obama Lefty Perfectionists Killed Us In MA
By Frank Schaeffer

Congratulations to the Left of the progressive movement and the Democratic Party: You just shot us all in the foot. You contributed to the Democratic loss in Massachusetts.

I’m a former Republican who ran from that hate-filled movement years ago. I am a heartfelt Obama supporter. And I am also and Independent Massachusetts voter.

I blame the ideological purist Left who have worked so hard to undermine the Obama presidency for the MA debacle. You set the stage.

The Left of the progressive movement couldn’t wait patiently for change. They wanted everything Now! They couldn’t ever see a glass half full and the possibility of improvement on the health care reform bill; it had to be prefect Now!

Gay rights moving ahead slowly weren’t fast enough! The fact that our president inherited the mess that landed on his desk didn’t move his Lefty critics to root for him, pray for him, and wait for him: No! It was “You’ve failed!” You’ve sold out to the banks! We're still at war! And all this only after less than 12 months in office!

Well, you got what you paid for. By giving aid and comfort to the extreme right – “See even his own supporters don’t trust him!” – You have emboldened the nuts. You also have sapped drip-by-drip the enthusiasm of Obama’s actual grass roots supporters (like me) who are not part of the "progressive elite".

You of the Obama-hating Left (yes I used that word -- hating) are both short-sighted and unrealistic.

Well, thanks ya’ll! See you in no-health care, no-gay rights, eternal-dumb-wars Sarah Palin’s America.

Now, I believe he told us how he really felt.. But he is correct.. If we keep this up.. We are opening up the door for all the Palin's, and the Republican's to get back in power.. Already according to the polls, people seem to want the Republican's to take the Congress back... Is this what YOU WANT? Keep up the good work.. That's what is going to happen.

I can’t remember this kind of wishy-washy attitude about a President before. Even when Bill Clinton was confronted with Monica, then impeached, people stood behind him. They supported him. No one, and I mean no one, was fighting and shouting he should do this and do that, he should fire this one or fire that one, he should step down.. Well except Republican’s. But NOT DEMOCRAT’S. The Democrat’s stood with him, oh there were some who didn’t… but the people… common people rallied around Bill Clinton.. Why are we not rallying around Pres. Obama?

No other President has ever.. Let me repeat that… NO OTHER PRESIDENT has ever faced the problems that Pres. Obama has faced this first year. NONE. Everyone he inherited from his predecessor. From 2 wars, both mismanaged, to a terrible recession, the worst since the great depression, to rising unemployment, which is being corrected by the actions of this President.

Pres. Obama has done more for this country in the first year, than most have done in 4 or 8 years. Yet no one gives him credit for it. He has brought us back from the brink of disaster, he has slowed unemployment by 10%, from 700,000 + a month to way less than that. Yes, we still have lots of people out of work, but it is much better than it was. He is honoring the agreement made to bring all the troops home from Iraq, in fact the Marines are leaving now, and all combat troops are to be out by the end of August. He has followed through on his planned escalation of the war in Afghanistan, much to the dismay of some of you, who wanted him to pull out of there. However he did say he was going to do just this.

Plus the list of accomplishments legislatively he has gotten done… all with little to NO Republican support, is very good. He has had a VERY GOOD 1st YEAR.

Merry Christmas Everyone, The President's Weekly Address

From the White House web site:

For the first time in a weekly address, the President is joined by the First Lady as they celebrate Christmas. They both honor those serving overseas, those who have sacrificed for their country, and the families that stand by them. Find ways to lend our troops and their families a home through DOD’s Military Homefront, OurMilitary.mil, and of course the USO.




Merry Christmas to all of you.. I so appreciate each of you so much.. You make me feel like what I do is special and valued. Thank you for supporting my efforts and letting me know you care.

We do need to remember our Military, our Veterans and all who work during the holidays to make this country run as it does. The support staff who help them all, the people who work hard to make sure they get home for the holidays when they can.. They need to be remembered too.

I hope you will take a moment to think of them during this Holiday Season.. so Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or any of the other Holidays I might have missed, I apologize for my ignorance and hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season.

Andrew Sullivan and Frank Schaeffer Both are Supporting the President.

Once again I am quoting from Frank Schaeffer who is asking everyone to read Andrew Sullivan. The piece Sully has in the Atlantic is really a must read, especially for all of you who are so critical of our President.

Just as Frank's piece I posted earlier was, this is an answer to some of you.. I hope you will read it with open eyes and an open mind and not be a critic. Remember, Sully until recently, was a Conservative, or that's what he called himself. In other words, a member of the GOP. He was a Reaganite. But this is what he has to say:

From Frank Schaeffer:Re Obama, responses to my pro-Obama piece, and responses to the responses.... etc. Note that Andrew Sullivan says it well in the Atlantic. So rather than go back through everything again and again for the Obama critics here it is from Sullivan. (The Atlantic Dec 23, 09).


Meep Meep, The Daily Dish

By Andrew Sullivan

My own view is that 2009 has been an extraordinarily successful year for Obama. Since this is currently a minority view and will prompt a chorus of "In The Tank!", allow me to explain.

The substantive record is clear enough. Torture is ended, if Gitmo remains enormously difficult to close and rendition extremely hard to police. The unitary executive, claiming vast, dictatorial powers over American citizens, has been unwound. The legal inquiries that may well convict former Bush officials for war crimes are underway, and the trial of KSM will reveal the lawless sadism of the Cheney regime that did so much to sabotage our war on Jihadism. Military force against al Qaeda in Pakistan has been ratcheted up considerably, even at a civilian cost that remains morally troubling. The US has given notice that it intends to leave Afghanistan with a bang - a big surge, a shift in tactics, and a heavy batch of new troops. Iraq remains dodgy in the extreme, but at least March elections have been finally nailed down.

Domestically, the new president has rescued the banks in a bail-out that has come in at $200 billion under budget; the economy has shifted from a tailspin to stablilization and some prospect of job growth next year; the Dow is at 10,500 a level no one would have predicted this time last year. A stimulus package has helped undergird infrastructure and probably did more to advance non-carbon energy than anything that might have emerged from Copenhagen. Universal health insurance (with promised deficit reduction!) is imminent - a goal sought by Democrats (and Nixon) for decades, impossible under the centrist Clinton, but won finally by a black liberal president. More progress has been made in unraveling the war on drugs this past year than in living memory. The transformation of California into a state where pot is now more available than in Amsterdam is as remarkable as the fact that such new sanity has spread across the country and is at historic highs, so to speak, in the opinion polls. On civil rights, civil marriage came to the nation's capital city, which has a 60 percent black population. If that doesn't help reverse some of the gloom from Prop 8 and Maine, what would? And, yes, the unspeakable ban on HIV-positive foreigners was finally lifted, bringing the US back to the center of the global effort to fight AIDS as it should be.

Relations with Russia have improved immensely and may yield real gains in non-proliferation; Netanyahu has moved, however insincerely, toward a two-state solution; Iran's coup regime remains far more vulnerable than a year ago, paralyzed in its diplomacy, terrified of its own people and constantly shaken by the ongoing revolution; Pakistan launched a major offensive against al Qaeda and the Taliban in its border area; global opinion of the US has been transformed; the Cairo speech and the Nobel acceptance speech helped explain exactly what Obama's blend of ruthless realism for conflict-management truly means.

The Beltway cannot handle all this. And that's why they continue to jump on every micro-talking-point and forget vast forests for a few failing saplings.

But when you consider the magnitude of shifting from one conservative era to one in which government simply has to be deployed to tackle deep structural problems, the achievement is as significant as his election year.

I remain, in other words, extremely bullish on the guy. There is a huge amount to come - finding a way to bring down long-term debt, ensuring health insurance reform stays on track and reformed constantly to control costs, turning the corner on non-carbon energy, reforming entitlements, finding a new revenue stream like a VAT, preventing Israel from attacking Iran, preventing Iran's coup regime from going even roguer, withdrawing from an Iraq still teetering on new sectarian conflict, avoiding a second downturn, closing Gitmo for good, ending the gay ban in the military ... well, you get the picture.

Change of this magnitude is extremely hard. That it is also frustrating, inadequate, compromised, flawed, and beset with bribes and trade-offs does not, in my mind, undermine it. Obama told us it would be like this - and it is. And those who backed him last year would do better, to my mind, if they appreciated the difficulty of this task and the diligence and civility that Obama has displayed in executing it.

Yes, we have. And yes, we still are the ones we've been waiting for - if we still care enough to swallow purism and pride and show up for the less emotionally satisfying grind of real, practical, incremental reform.

Again, we have to look at the big picture.. WE aren't always going to agree with everything the President says or does, but for the most part I still think he has done very well this year. Remember he has only the Congress we elected for him to work with. He still has to contend with Traitor Joe, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and all the rest of the DINO's in the Senate.

Even with them fighting him, he has still managed to rack up a pretty impressive record.

Remember, open mind, open heart.

Oh and Merry Christmas everyone.

Frank Schaeffer Weighs in Again

I have been sitting on this for a couple of days. Frank Schaeffer is one of my favorite reads. He writes at Huffington Post and he also has his own blog. I don't read much on Huff Post anymore, but I do check out his blog. You can get there by clicking on his name above, but I am posting this article in full here.. I am also going to post Andrew Sullivan's latest from The Atlantic. It is more or less a response to Frank's and is very good. But here is Frank:

Obama Will Triumph — So Will America

Before he’d served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President. Why?-- because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.

Obama’s steady supporters will be proved right. Obama’s critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition – from both the right and left.

As the President’s poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.

The left’s lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling “prophecy”-- snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn’t have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was his fault:

# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries

# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral

# The worst economic crisis since the depression

# America’s standing in the world at the lowest point in history

# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war

# A health care system in free fall

# An educational system in free fall

# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)

# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left

# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration…

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President’s desk!

“Help” from the Right?

What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to “help” our new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he wasn’t a real American, didn’t have an American birth certificate, wasn’t born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating "racist", was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted “death panels” to kill the elderly!

They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized “tea parties” to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) “commentators” from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.

The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: “No!”

In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right,combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent “bishops”, frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

“Help” from the Left?

What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he’d inherited from the worst president in modern history!

Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President’s economic policies had “failed” before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minuets of the President taking office, they’d been “betrayed”! (Never mind that Obama’s vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president’s has been. Never that mind he signed a new hate crimes law!)

Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they’d not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the “change”? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals!

And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond… “Governing”?! What the hell does that world, uh, like mean?”

The President’s critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just couldn’t imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren’t as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn’t consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!

The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas—say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office… twice!

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community – in just 12 short months -- President Obama:

#Continued the draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Restored America’s image around the globe
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Banned torture of American prisoners
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of the American economy
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Stood up for educational reform
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Won a Nobel peace prize
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of job losses
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the “blood of tyrants” needing to “water the tree of liberty”…
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR -- President Obama “failed”! Other than that he didn’t “live up to expectations”!

Who actually has failed...

...are the Americans that can’t see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned “news” into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.

Here’s the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty “supporters” or hate-filled Republican detractors!

The Future Looks Good

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling.

Just because we didn’t get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays, depending on your point of view) to everyone!

PS. if you agree that Obama is shaping up to be a great president please pass this on and hang in there!

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of “Patience With God – Faith For People Who Don’t Like Religion (Or Atheism).”

Frank may be contacted at Frankschaeffer.com

Pres. Obama Today On Senate Agreement

Here is the brief statement Pres. Obama made today on the Health Care Reform agreement that was reached today in the Senate.

We still have a ways to go.. It is not done yet... But this is a huge step forward.

The CBO score is in also and it is looking good. Here is the President.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

He also touched on the Climate Change agreement that was reached in Copenhagen yesterday.

One of the things that was interesting was a note from a pool reporter that stated the President "Burst into the meeting between China and Brazil and the security tried to stop him but he wasn't to be stopped." Now does that satisfy everyone that the President can be assertive when he wants to be?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pardoning of the Turkey

I missed this when it happened.. since I was at the hospital and just got to watch it now.. I love our President's sense of humor... he is funny, wise and laughs at his own jokes and loves to tease his girls.

If you missed this, here is the official pardoning of the "Bird" for Thanksgiving this year and now it is off to Disneyland to live forever....lol

March on Washington to Show the Teabaggers what Support Looks Like

On January 15, 2010 there is a movement in the works to march on Washington, DC and show the Teabaggers what real support looks like.

This is in support of our President and the Democratic Congress. To show them we are behind them, to show them we want reform, we want a green economy, we want everything we were promised and we supported from our Congress and the President.

This video explains it all, they have a Facebook group you can join. Which is here at Facebook .




This is a wonderful idea and I hope we can get a huge crowd together.. If we can get more people to show up and get the attention of the national press, maybe we can prove that we, as progressives are stronger and make more sense than any Teabagger out there.

Please take this video and share it and post it so we can get the word out.. Let's try to get as many people informed about this as we can and hopefully we can get a huge crowd there for this event. Maybe some of us who couldn't be there for the inauguration can be there for the 1 year celebration of it.

Thanks all... I hope you enjoy this..

President Obama's Address at Fort Hood Memorial

I have no words to say about this. I believe our President says it all very clearly and very plainly himself.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I am not meaning to take anything away from what the President is saying, however RealityZone left me a comment the other day and said we should all read this article to possibly help us understand the man who did this tragic shooting. After looking at it I agree with him. You should check out his blog when you get a chance too.

I am going to post just the web page and you can go there and read it if you would like. It is called, Word gets around: Twilight and the trick of the psychopaths and if you click on the title it will take you to the site where you can read all about it.

Thanks RZ for pointing this out to me and everyone.

He has also given me some great info on more Wind Energy posts and I have got to get them posted..

I promise I will get them done in the next day or so.

Craig Crawford Puts the Obama vs Fox into Perspective

Craig Crawford gives a little bit of historical perspective to the White House vs. Fox "war" that everyone seems to be talking about.

I don't agree with him that it is a bad idea, however, but I do know it has happened many times before.. it seems most people have forgotten that. I have never considered Fox a news organization and refuse to call them such.. so I understand exactly where the President and his staff are coming from.

But here is a Craig's take on it.. I always enjoy his unique perspective.

LEAVE OR ELSE!.. By Oct. 15, 2009...

Another warning to Pres. Obama from a militia group. This time a warning saying they are going to:

“If you stay,” the silent video message continues, “ ‘We, The People’ will systematically dismantle you, destroy you and reclaim what is rightfully ours. …

“We are angry and we are ready to take back the rights of the people. We will fight and We will win. …

My only problem... since when is a honestly elected, with a significant margin at that, considered taking something away from someone. We have elections in this country every 4 years for the President.

That is the law, set up in the Constitution of the United States and done without fail since this country was created. Pres. Obama won the election by a wide margin and people need to get over it. This kind of hate filled rhetoric is idiotic.

Lets look back at the election results in case you forgot, shall we..

Electoral Votes... Barack Obama.. 365 votes
John McCain... 173 votes

HMMMMM, quite the difference there... wonder how that happened.. that's not quite taking it away from him is it.. I wouldn't think so.

Now if that doesn't solve it let's look at another little fact here.

Popular Vote.... Barack Obama... 66,882,230 (53%)
John McCain... 58,343,671 (46%)

Now, once again.. That's a pretty fair margin.. I hope this refreshes your memory of the WIDE results of last years election and how Pres. Obama defeated McCain, not by a narrow sliver.. but by a MANDATE.. he didn't take something that didn't belong to him, he WON. FAIR AND SQUARE.

SO, MY ADVICE... GET. OVER. YOUR. SELF.........LOSERS.....

You can watch the video below.. and my hat is off to Bob Cesca @ BobCesca'sAwesomeBlog! GO! for bringing it to my attention. I suspect it is just like the last one, that was posted and showing them marching on Washington DC with 1 million armed men on July 4th.. I think that fizzled out too.. but it never hurts to be prepared for Teh Crazy that is out there...lol

Worship of the President by School Children, The Horror of it all

We can't allow this to happen.. We can't allow our children to be indoctrinated by worship of our President. We must stop this now... Oh wait, it is too late.. it already happened and look where it got us.



Yep, that's Pres. Bush... being worshiped in absentia via a cardboard cutout. But did you see how the teacher or whatever she was directed the worship of the picture of the President by these children and they obeyed, they prayed, they bowed, they obviously were worshiping him.

Yet, to hear Fox Noise, and the GOPers things like this never happened, this all just started with Pres. Obama.. Well, proof of the lie that is..

Sorry again, for the lack of posts lately, but you know where I have been.. I will be back soon.. In the meantime please visit my friends Sue and the Complaint Dept. Manager @ Helloooooo Mr President She has been doing a great job of covering everything and keeps the rethugs hoppping...

Then there is also TomCat @ PoliticsPlus who stays on top of the news of the day, gives a wrap up and even throws in a puzzle to while away a few minutes and offers an open thread to just talk about what you might have on your chest.

The video today I got from another great blogger friend Matt @ Osborne Ink. If you haven't checked him out yet.. You are missing a great writer/reporter... Matt is also raising money to do some investigative reporting. Give him a read and if you can throw a few pennies in the pot.. He will be very appreciative. Thanks Matt for sharing with me.

Last Week, The President Promised to Call Out the Lies

Well, here is the start.. of course no one in the media is going to pick up on it and no one will bother to see it and report on it from Fox Noise for sure. But at least we know it is there.

Crooks & Liars wrote it up and I am writing it up.. But if you bother to read the White House Blog you should have seen it yourself. Anita Dunn put up a post about the idiocy of Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs over the Czars they are whining about.

Of course, they started it and then like good little soldiers members of the GOPers in Congress picked up on it like they are supposed to and started talking it up too. I am not sure which way this works.. if Fox Noise sends the talking points to the RNC or if the RNC sends the talking points to Fox Noise every day.. but it is one or the other.

Here is part of what Ms. Dunn wrote at the White House blog about the Czar situation:

Last week, when the President addressed the Joint Session of Congress in a speech on health reform, he referred to some of the untruths – okay, lies – that have been spread about the plan and sent a clear message to those who seek to undermine his agenda and his presidency with these tactics: "We will call you out." So consider this one of those calls.

Over the past several weeks, we've seen with increasing frequency and volume issues raised around the use of "czars" by this Administration. Although some Members have asked serious questions around the makeup of the White House staff, the bulk of the noise you hear began first with partisan commentators, suggesting that this is somehow a new and sinister development that threatens our democracy. This is, of course, ridiculous. Just to be clear, the job title "czar" doesn’t exist in the Obama Administration. Many of the officials cited by conservative commentators have been confirmed by the Senate. Many hold policy jobs that have existed in previous Administrations. And some hold jobs that involved coordinating the work of agencies on President Obama’s key policy priorities: health insurance reform, energy and green jobs, and building a new foundation for long-lasting economic growth

But of course, it’s really the hypocrisy here that is noteworthy. Just earlier today, Darrell Issa, a Republican from California and one of the leaders in calling for an investigation into the Obama Administration’s use of "czars", had to admit to Fox News that he had never raised any objections to the Bush Administration’s use of "czars". Many of these members who now decry the practice have called on Presidents in the past to appoint "czars" to coordinate activities within the government to address immediate challenges. What is clear is that all of this energy going into these attacks could be used to have a constructive conversation about bringing this country together to address our challenges moving forward – and it doesn’t take a "czar" to bring that about! Just some folks willing to act in good faith.

Way to go Ms. Dunn..and way to name names and call them out. I approve of this message and I approve of the tactics this is taking. But there is more. I did highlight some of the above passages I wanted to make sure you saw.

Yeah, isn't it funny.. they called for more czars under Bush, that was Lamar Alexander, (R,TN(hypocriteville) who did that, and now he is all against the czars that Pres. Obama has. Ms. Dunn goes on to cite more and more of the hypocrisy of the Republicans and the idiots of Fox Noise.

In fact, last year, 176 House Republicans, including Issa, voted for a bill that would create an "Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator" that would advise the President and serve in the White House. By the time the bill passed the Senate, it was co-sponsored by 20 additional senators, including Sen. Alexander.

Damn, don't you hate it when your words come back and bite you in the ass there Senator and Representative? Just really makes you look like a fool doesn't it?

Then there is this little gem from the DNC..



You can read the entire blog post at the link above.. it is really good and she lays out all kinds of other proof of their hypocrisy and lies. Including the fact at least 9 of the so called czars HAVE gone through Senate confirmation, even though Beck says they haven't.

The one thing I didn't notice was the number of czars George Bush had in his administration..According to Tweety tonight.. it was 46.. hmmm I believe unless you use that new math that is going around.. that's just a few more than the 30 that Pres. Obama has.

More Pictures From Wing Nut Land.. 09-12-09

Since some of the earlier pictures prompted a response of wingnuts saying they were wrong and the misspellings were on purpose and I was being dishonest in my reporting of them here are some more I found.











This one is one of the most offensive ones to me, and probably to many of us...



And my response to all of those who were protesting and to all of you who come here and to other progressive and liberal sites and feign outrage at our disgust at your stupidity and ignorance. This is what I have to tell you now.

Fired Up! Ready To Go! Hello, Minnesota!

Pres. Obama was on fire again today in Minnesota talking about Health Care. He rallied the crowd and gave a great speech mostly using the same talking points he used the other night in Congress. One new item he added was the Treasury report he talked about this morning.

When he first came out he asked the group who were first come first serve ticket holders if they were "Fired Up, Ready To Go?" and they responded with Yes We Can.

At the end of his speech he told the story of Greenwood, SC which quickly became a rally cry of the campaign "Fired Up, Ready to Go" and he closed with that chant.

Here is the video link and I will embed it when it becomes available.

Here is the video now:



I hope you enjoy it.

My Frustrations Boiling Over Again

You see that picture.. That's what I was talking about the other day. I think that is a disservice to Sen. Kennedy. He did NOT support Medicare for all at this time. Simply because he knew it would not pass.

Yes, he would have loved it, and at one time I think that's what he wanted.. but it is not what he wanted now. If he had, don't you think that's what he would have written in the bill he wrote for the Senate committee he chaired?

The President has now released the logs of visitors to the White House. Everyone was clamoring for them. Now they have them and are bitching about them because they don't like what they see. I am sorry, but to me this is just hypocrisy.

Yes, the President and some of his staff have been meeting with Insurance Company big wigs and Pharma. Isn't that how you make agreements and try to get people to make concessions? By meeting with them? At least that's what I always thought.. but gee, maybe I am wrong.. maybe you don't meet people you want to try to get to lower costs and make concessions with, maybe you are supposed to just shove them away and tell them to go out and cause problems.

Yes, that's what they have done. We have seen that. But still, at least the President and his staff has been attempting to do something. I know, I have my Pollyanna showing again.. or as someone else said.. my head in the sand.

I have been accused of all kinds of things. I just want to have a little faith and trust in my President again.. Is that too much to ask. No, I don't agree with 100% of everything he has done. But I don't expect to have done so with anyone that was elected. But I damn sure agree with a lot more of what he has done than disagree, and I certainly think he has done more positive than negative.

Yesterday, late in the afternoon there was a story out about a phone call between the President and Progressive members of Congress. But for the most part it went unnoticed. And what did get reported was only part of the conversation..The part that went like this. From Greg Sargent at the Plum Line:

I just got off the phone with Dem Rep. Raul Grijalva, one of more than two dozen House progressives who held a conference call with President Obama today to discuss the public option’s fate.

Says Grijalva: The call left him with no doubt that Obama understands House libs are dead serious about not backing any bill without a public plan in it.

“He understands how serious we are about this,” said Grijalva, one of the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in describing the tone of the conversation. “For many of us this is not a political dance. He got that point.”

Grijalva says Obama asked how far liberals were willing to compromise on the public option, another sign, Grijalva noted, that he grasps that they mean what they say. He added that Obama asked a number of “frank” and “probing” questions, though he declined to say precisely what they were.

But the part that seems to get left out is the last of the conversation.. Where Representative Grijalva goes on to say this:

In another newsworthy tidbit, Grijalva says Obama signaled that discussions about the public option would continue even after his big speech before a joint session of Congress next week. That may be an indication that Obama won’t be mentioning the public option in his speech, but doesn’t want liberals to despair at that prospect.

Said Grijalva: “I didn’t come away from this discussion feeling that we were dead.”

Emphasis mine, and as I have stated numerous times, I don't feel like the President has given up on the Public Option.

If we on the left side of politics could hang together and be as strong as the ones on the right.. if we could just hold our line and be like the right.. we could get this done.

Right now we need to concentrate on the same group I have pointed out before. Instead of attacking the President and saying he has sold us out, we need to be after the members of Congress who have not committed to the Public Option.. We need to make sure we still have the support of those 45 Senators that Governor Dean listed at his site Democracy for America and the ones that have not committed need to be reminded that we are counting on them to vote for the Public Option.

This is what the President said on August 20th when he met with and talked to the people who were his "base and supporters" in Organizing for America, Health Care Forum:

So that is absolutely critical. Now, one of the options we want to provide them is a public option, and there's been -- this has been a confusion around this -- (applause) -- there's been a lot of confusion about this, so let me just clarify. I think a public option is important. And let me explain why.

We're going to have a marketplace where people can select the options that work best for them, the insurance plan that works best for them. A lot of those choices, the overwhelming majority of those choices, will be private insurance options, just like members of Congress have -- they're allowed to choose from various proposals or various plans that are part of the federal employees' health plan.

But what we do think is if we have a public option in there, that can help keep insurers honest; it can provide a benchmark for what an affordable basic plan should look like. And so even though we've got a whole bunch of insurance regulations that ensure that any private insurer that's participating in the exchange is giving you a fair deal, this is sort of like the belt-and-suspenders concept -- it means that not only do they have to abide by these regulations, but they also have to compete with somebody whose interest is not just profit but instead is interested in making sure that the American people get decent care.

Now, having said that -- (applause) -- having said that, I want everybody to be clear that the public option is just one option. It will be voluntary. Nobody is talking about you having to be in the public option. Only -- the only thing that we're talking about is this being available to you as a choice, expanding consumer choice. And we think that's a good idea.

Now, there are a whole bunch of other aspects to health insurance reform, though, that people have to understand. We want to make sure that, for example, insurance companies can't prevent you from getting health insurance because of a preexisting condition. That will be the law whether you're in the health insurance exchange or you're just keeping the insurance that you already have. You should be able to keep it regardless of preexisting condition. You should be able to purchase it. There shouldn't be lifetime caps or yearly caps where you bump up against it and suddenly you've got huge out-of-pocket costs that drive you into bankruptcy. We've got to make sure that there are basic consumer protections on that.

You should be able to keep your health insurance if you get sick or you lose your job or you change jobs. And all too often what happens is when you need insurance most, that's when the insurers decide to drop you. And we've got to make sure that that is against the law. And that's part of what health insurance reform is all about.

So it's going to bring down skyrocketing costs, it's going to save families money, it's going to save businesses money, and it's going to save government money. We are going to make Medicare more efficient, guaranteeing today's seniors better benefits than they have right now. We're going to make sure that that doughnut hole in the middle of their prescription drug plan, that that doughnut hole is closed, because we want to make sure that seniors who are already living on fixed incomes during difficult times aren't having to dig even deeper to increase drug company profits.

So I just want everybody to understand that in addition to providing health insurance for people who don't have it, even if you have health insurance, you've got a stake in this debate. Fourteen thousand people are losing their health insurance every single day. Millions of people all across the country are vulnerable to exclusions because of things like preexisting conditions. Millions of Americans have experienced the fact that premiums have gone up three times faster than inflation and faster than incomes.

And if we go at the pace that we're going right now, there are going to be a whole lot of families who make the decision that they can't afford health insurance because the costs are simply unsustainable.

And if you're a deficit hawk, then you should be especially concerned about passing health care reform, because at the pace we're on right now, Medicare is going to run out of money in eight years. It won't be totally broke, but it will be in the red, because the costs are going up a lot faster than the money that's coming in.

So when you're talking to seniors out there, tell them, number one, nobody is talking about cutting their benefits. Talk to them about the fact that, by the way, Medicare is already a government program -- (laughter and applause) -- so when people say, "Keep government out of our health care," make sure they know that Medicare is a government program. But also explain to them that part of what we want to do is strengthen the program so that it's going to be there over the long haul. We don't want a situation in which Medicare runs short of money because we did not make the changes that were needed early on.

I am absolutely confident that we can get this done, but I want everybody to remember, this has never been easy -- never been easy. When FDR proposed Social Security, all across what was I guess the equivalent of today's Internet, right -- (laughter) -- all the newspapers and the radio shows and all that -- he was accused of being a socialist. He was going to bring socialism to America. How dare he.

When JFK and then Lyndon Johnson proposed Medicare, everybody suggested, this is going to be a government takeover of health care; it's going to destroy your relationship with your doctor. The same arguments that are being made now have been made every time we've tried to propose a significant change that ultimately made people more secure, improved our health care, improved our quality of life.

So we cannot be intimidated by some of these scare tactics. We have to understand that there a lot of people who are invested in the status quo and make a lot of money out of it. We've got to also understand that people are understandably nervous and worried about any significant changes when it comes to something as important as health care, because it touches on your lives, it's very personal -- and so they're more vulnerable to misinformation.

And that's why what all of you do is so important, because people trust you -- your neighbors, your friends, fellow community members -- they trust you. They know you. And if you are presenting the facts clearly and fairly, I'm absolutely confident that we're going to win this debate. But we're going to have a lot of work to do and I'm grateful that you're willing to do it. Let's go get 'em. Thank you very much, everybody.

Again, the President has stated right there, he is in support of the Public Option.. but does anyone talk about this.. NOPE.. we ignore it.. so does the media because it doesn't fit into what they want to say. It doesn't feed the hype of the President abandoning his base and the Republicans winning the battle. And that's what this is all about. The Republicans and big business winning the battle.

Big business, Insurance Companies, Big Pharma and the Republicans.. all part of the Corporate Media and all part of the same pattern of the Rushbos and the Hannity's and the Becks who want the President and the Democrats to fail, so that they can get back in power.. That's the name of the game.

As long as the people who believe the media spin, who feed off this stuff and keep hyping it, it will continue. So keep going... The bill we need to be pushing, if you want to invoke Teddy Kennedy is the one he wrote.. The one from the HELP committee. It can be found here at the HELP committee web site.

That's the full text of the bill, it is only $600 billion over 10 years as scored by the CBO. You can see that in the summary of the bill at this site here.

As I stated before, this bill should be considered bipartisan, with 160 amendments written by Republicans. They have tried to say they didn't have a seat at the table, but that is an out and out lie. The shear hypocrisy of them is astronomical.