Recently in Barack Obama Category

The Washington Post is reporting: "President Obama Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney. The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision. An official said the...

House Minority Leader John Boehner spent his time on the floor tonight before the historic health care vote making petty, useless accusations and used theatrics that were the very antithesis of Obama's inspirational and famous "Yes We Can" chants of the 2008 election.  He accused the Democrats of making back door deals and writing the bill behind closed doors, yadda yadda. He complained an awful lot about the process, but not much about the problems within...

I heard something on NPR this morning that irked me, to say the least.Since PBO took office over a year ago, there are still some 200 or so positions that are to be filled by his appointments. He has named people to these positions--don't misunderstand--but apparently there seems to be a little problem in getting the various Director-level folks into these positions. The little problem is ... partisan politics on the part of the Republicans.Positions...

As I write this, I want to establish that I am only talking about other people's opinions and not my own. As a Clear Lake resident, I am around people in the space industry on a daily basis. Some people stand in awe at astronauts while those of us in Clear Lake kind of yawn. However, we are acutely aware of important the space industry is to our immediately community. I would harbor the guess...

One would think there would be some limit to the Republican strategy of "no."  If Obama decided to endorse a bipartisan proposed plan that does the one thing every single American could agree we should do, it would be reducing the deficit, right? Wrong. Republicans are opposing a plan to put together a commission of 18 Democrats and Republicans to evaluate different ways to reduce the deficit.  The panel would have until December 1 - after the midterm elections - to produce a...

Bear with me here, everyone knows I am a huge baseball fan. I follow basketball and football as well and thought I would throw out an extended sports analogy that might help explain the current political climate. As a coach, I have rarely ever been in the position of having a vastly superior team, but it has happened before. I can honestly say it is the second most challenging coaching juggle you can have. Naturally,...

December 20, 2009   Representative John Culberson, 7th District514 Longworth Building Washington DC 20515-4307   10000 Memorial Drive, Suite 620 Houston, TX  77024-3490   Dear Representative Culberson:   Thank you for your response to my letter expressing my opinion on health care reform with another of your empty, partisan, form letters written by someone on your staff. I truly appreciate the time it took one of your minions to add me to the distribution...

As I look around the political landscape today, illustrated perfectly by the complete chaos that the health care reform debate has evolved into, I have to ask myself, what the hell happened? How did the Obama presidency, which had so much promise and potential for becoming the "change" that so many of us voted for and hoped for, turn into such a mess? How did this happen to a president who was elected in what...

Those of you that recall the 1992 election well remember the famous line from James Carville. In many ways, that line is true and always will be true. For the Democrats in 2010, that line holds more importance than they could ever guess. People focus on health care reform and they should. The Senate removed the public option, but it doesn't mean that it's dead. Consider the public option as the knee replacement you've needed...

Everyone is sick of the White House dinner crasher story, but, If you didn't watch SNL last night, you just have to see this:...