Recently in Barack Obama Category

With a national audience tuned in, tonight would be as good a time as any for President Obama to draw some lines in the sand and make some clear distinctions between his vision for the future and that of his opposition. The fact that the Republican response to the president's State of the Union message will be given by Paul Ryan the Social Security and Medicare slasher and privatizer makes it an even more opportune...

A great speech. President Obama at his best. Compassionate, warm, honoring those who died, those who survived, and those whose heroic actions at a time of crisis kept the tragedy from being worse than it was. A few of my favorite passages:"...[A]t a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet...

In the immediate aftermath of the shootings in Tucson this past Saturday, before any evidence had been uncovered as to what made Jared Loughner do what he did, and when it was still unclear as to whether or not incendiary political rhetoric played any part, Republicans rushed to microphones everywhere to try and distance themselves from any culpability with the "both sides do it" defense. A few opinions of others on this false equivalent and...

A few odds and ends on a gray Wednesday morning:Since the new Republican majority in the House is going to start today with a dog and pony show reading of the Constitution, maybe they could have Justice Scalia stop by and explain why he thinks the First Amendment right to free speech applies to corporations but the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth doesn't apply to women. Could be interesting.To whom it may concern at...

Breaking news: In order to cut down on travel time through the revolving door for President Obama's outgoing and incoming team of advisers, the White House is moving from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Here's the new location:Might as well be:"President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level administration post, possibly White House chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said. [...]After...

From the Department of Blatant Hypocrisy, Do As I Say, Not As I Do Division:"The Obama administration is expressing alarm over reports that thousands of political separatists and captured Taliban insurgents have disappeared into the hands of Pakistan's police and security forces, and that some may have been tortured or killed.The concern is over a steady stream of accounts from human rights groups that Pakistan's security services have rounded up thousands of people over the...

Awww, poor wittle banksters. They got their fee-fees hurt by the mean, old pwesident who didn't invite them to the recent oligarchy roundtable in Washington:"On the mental list of slights and outrages that just about every major figure on Wall Street is believed to keep on President Barack Obama, add this one: When he met recently with a group of CEOs at Blair House, there was no representative from any of the six biggest banks...

In a January 20 article at the Center for American Progress, Michael Linden differentiated between those who are serious about addressing our fiscal problems-the deficit hawks-from those who posture and preen about it--the deficit peacocks. Here's how he defines a peacock:"Deficit peacocks like to preen and call attention to themselves, but are not sincerely interested in taking the difficult but necessary steps toward a balanced budget. Peacocks prefer scoring political points to solving problems."This is...

Fiction:"Congress at midnight Thursday approved an $801 billion package of tax cuts and $57 billion for extended unemployment insurance. The vote sealed the first major deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans as Democrats put aside their objections and bowed to the realignment of power brought about by their crushing election losses. The bipartisan support for the tax deal also underscored the urgency felt by the administration and by lawmakers in both parties to prop...

The Senate voted 83-15 yesterday to invoke cloture on President Obama's sell-out compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top 2%. Nine Democrats and Bernie Sanders voted "no." The nine were: Jeff Bingaman (NM), Sherrod Brown (OH), Russ Feingold (WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Kay Hagan (NC), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Pat Leahy (VT), Carl Levin (MI), and Mark Udall (CO). One of the poster children for duplicity and hypocrisy, Mary Landrieu of...