Recently in Barack Obama Category

The next time you hear one of our elected officials in Washington rail against President Obama’s proposed public option on health insurance by saying it will “destroy the marketplace” (Richard Shelby) or that there’s “plenty of competition in the private insurance market” (Joe Lieberman) remember this report from Heath Care for America Now (HCAN). The only thing in danger of being destroyed is the monopoly the large insurance companies presently hold, and which they are...

With most of our celebrity-crazed media and public focused on the death of Michael Jackson, I guess it was the perfect time for a Friday night news dump like this: “Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge...

TIME’s Joe Klein had some good advice for John McCain in an appearance on Larry King Live Tuesday night. Advice that also applies to Lindsey Graham, Fred Thompson and the rest of the Republican chorus of bluster and bravado urging President Obama to “do more” about the situation in Iran. “Be quiet.” Whatever happened to “politics stops at the waters edge?” I recall not too long ago Republicans saying that criticizing the President’s foreign policy...

Proving that they have learned absolutely nothing from our experience in Iraq, the neo-conservative interventionists, led by former Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Bomb, Bomb Iran himself, Senator John McCain, are beginning the drumbeat of “do something” following the fraudulent Iranian election. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDeJKl4h3Sg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwonkroom.thinkprogress.org%2F2009%2F06%2F15%2Fmccain-reminds-us-of-bullet-it-dodged-in-november%2F&feature=player_embedded] And naturally the cries of “weak” and “appeaser” in reference to President Obama and his non-interventionist policy are also being heard. Mitt Romney saying: “It’s very clear that the president’s policies of going...

We need to change the last line of our national anthem. No longer are we the home of the brave, we are home of the frightened, cowering in fear. Fear brought on by demagogic Republicans and  spineless Democrats who go along so as not to be portrayed by those demagogues as “soft on terror.” This is the latest example that we have become a nation of cowards; “The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans...

The words of the Department of Homeland Security report on “Rightwing Extremism” which was released in April, the report which so incensed Republicans and the right-wing media that they demanded and received an apology from DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, are becoming more prescient every day. Just to remind you what it said: “Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred...

They’re baaaaaaaack! As President Obama takes his trip to the Middle East where he will give a speech in Cairo and, as a last-minute add-on, attend a private meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah (where he can undoubtedly bow before the King without photographers present this time) an article from Jake Tapper of ABC News has the Obama is a Seekrit Mooslim crowd all fired up again. “During a conference call in preparation...

As if there wasn’t enough panic coming from the Republicans in D.C. (along with some Democrats like Harry Reid) about detainees from Gitmo being re-located to American suburbia, now comes the obligatory ‘Social Security is going broke’ myth from one of the usual suspects on the right, Robert Samuelson, columnist for the Washington Post. ”The recession had made everything worse…trust funds run dry; promised benefits exceed dedicated payroll taxes…retirees would scream. Hospitals might shut.” Chicken...

There is an often-repeated phrase that I’ve been hearing lately in the debate over the actions of the Bush administration, and in relation to the closing of Guantanamo and what to do with the people being held there. President Obama repeated it in his speech on national security Thursday. Former Vice-President Cheney has used it several times as his justification for the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques.” It was the priority of the administration and...

It’s beginning to look more and more like there was an even swap in the United States Senate, the Democrats got Arlen Specter and the Republicans got Harry Reid. No check that, after seeing Jim Webb on This Week this past Sunday saying there’s no need for a Truth Commission or an investigation into the activities of the Bush administration because “it’s not that big a deal” maybe the trade was 2 for 1. In...