John Boehner Has A Pre-911 Mentality

House Minority Leader John Boehner (I don’t care what he says, his name should be pronounced “Boner” today accused President Obama of having a pre-911 mentality based on his administration’s handling of the Christmas “underwear” bombers arrest and detention. The trouble is the policies Attorney General Eric Holder and the rest of the administration followed were set in place after 911 by the Bush administration and have resulted in the conviction of about 300 terrorists.

Since Boehner/Boner has forgotten everything that has happened since 911, doesn’t that mean he, not the President has the pre-911 mentality?

This is another of the facts optional attacks that the Republicans have thrown at President Obama which show the Republicans to be more interested in scoring political points than what is true or what is good for the country. These folks are corrupt to their very souls.

Obama’s State Of The Union Shows How The Democrats Can Join The Tea-Party and Win In November

It goes without saying (so why am I saying it?) that no one on the right liked the content of President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union speech, and many on the left were less than impressed by what they considered a conservative turn in many of his proposals. Many liberal/progressive commentators (e.g. Rachel Maddow and Kieth Olbermann, both of whom are usually very insightful) interpreted Obama’s proposals as attempts to ingratiate himself with the Republicans in congress who, these commentators correctly note, will continue to game any movement toward bipartisanship.

President Obama, however, was not reaching out to Republicans in congress, they are—despite Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts—largely irrelevant. They have taken themselves out of the game and can do little more than heckle the players from the bench.

Instead President Obama was reaching out to the seething angry mob of populists

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Obama Deserves Liberal/Progressive Support!

[I started this post to respond to a wretched article in the Washington Post, but I got carried away. I will follow this with my response to that article.]

As though everyone has joined the tea-party and drank tea mixed with some very odd herbs, it has become popular to characterize Obama’s first year as a failure. As a die-hard liberal, I have three words for other liberals and progressives. “Cut it out!”

As I pointed out in yesterday’s post, President Obama won a four-year (not a one-year) term and has a solid record of accomplishments for which he is being given little credit.

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Obama Admits He Was Too Optimistic—“Duh”

In an interview published by Reuters today, President Obama admits that he underestimated how intractable the problems in the Middle East are and has not made the progress towards peace that he wanted. Now if he would make the same admission about his goals of reshaping the political process in this country, he might regains some of the support he has lost.

In both these areas President Obama’s strength is also his weakness.

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Turn off Rush: Changing the Channel is not Censorship

I am a pretty much and absolutist when it comes to freedom of speech. Since libel and slander can be addressed in the courts, except for the oft cited “Yelling fire in a crowded theater” example, I think people should have the right to say whatever they feel like. Therefore, I am compelled defend the right of Rush Limbaugh to speak whatever words leak out of the cottage cheese and moss he has between his ears.

You and I, however, are under no compulsion to listen to Rush’s drivel. Whenever Rush comes on, we are free to turn off the radio or television or change the channel. And after Limbaugh’s racist attack on Obama’s response to the crisis in Haiti, if we want to consider ourselves decent, honorable men and women we must refuse to support Rush by listening.

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