Obama displays a chart of health care after passage of Obamacare

In an amazing slap in the face to the majority of Americans that oppose President Obama’s health care reform, house democrats, being pushed by President Obama and speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi, seem poised to pass one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation to come along in more than eighty years.

With President Barack Obama’s sweeping healthcare overhaul headed for a final House vote this week, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn said Democrats were short for now of the 216 votes needed for approval but he was confident they could find them.

“We don’t have them as of this morning, but we’ve been working this thing all weekend, we’ll be working it going into the week, I’m also very confident that we’ll get this done,” Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat who is entrusted with lining up the party’s votes, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod and spokesman Robert Gibbs appeared on a series of Sunday morning talk shows to say the stalled overhaul, Obama’s top legislative priority, was headed for approval in the House this week.

“I think we will have the votes to pass this,” Axelrod said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Obama delayed his first overseas trip of the year this week to help round up votes for healthcare reform, the focus of a long-running political brawl with Republican opponents that has consumed the U.S. Congress for the last nine months.

House Democrats are scrambling to win final passage of the Senate’s healthcare bill among Democrats unhappy with key provisions — including language on the ban on federal funding for abortion — and nervous about November’s elections in which Republicans could challenge their control of Congress.

In a two-step process, House Democrats want to approve the Senate’s version of the bill sometime this week and make the changes sought by Obama and House Democrats through a separate measure passed under budget reconciliation rules.

Those rules require only a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, bypassing the need for 60 votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles. The House and Senate hope to finish work on the second bill before starting a two-week Easter recess on March 26.

“I think the House will have passed the Senate bill a week from today,” Gibbs said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

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Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who announced last week that he will resign this evening, suggested over the weekend that it is his own party, desperate to pass health care legislation, that pushed him out, according to this story in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

“Now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass,” said Massa, who was one of 39 Democrats who voted against an earlier House version of the health care bill last November.

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill, and this administration and this House leadership have said, ‘they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill, and now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass.’ You connect the dots,” Massa said, according to a separate story in Roll Call.

During a weekly radio program, Massa also provided more detail about what led to an ongoing investigation by the House ethics committee. He acknowledged making an inappropriate remark to staff member after dancing with a bridesmaid at a wedding. He said the ethics complaint came not from that staffer, but from another at the table.

Last week, On Politics reported here that Massa planned to leave Congress after his term ended this year. In a conference call with reporters, he cited a recurrence of cancer, which he had previously battled in 1996, as the reason for his departure.

But since then, the House ethics committee announced it was investigating Massa and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said his office had been made aware of “allegations of misconduct” against Massa in early February. On Friday, Massa announced he would resign effective today.

But according to Roll Call, Massa also left open the possibility of rescinding his resignation: “I’m not going to be a congressman as of 5 o’clock [Monday] afternoon,” he said. “The only way to stop that is for me to rescind my resignation. That’s the only way to stop it. And the only way that’s going to happen is if this becomes a national story.”

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s furious, final push to get a health care bill passed threatens to shove aside the message he promised would top his list this year: creating jobs.

Even as the White House juggles several enormous issues at once, the public takes its cues about the president’s chief concern from how he spends his time, energy and capital. As Obama himself put it on Wednesday, from now until Congress takes a final vote on a health care overhaul, “I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform.”

That kind of now-or-never campaign means America can expect a debate consumed by health care, again, for weeks.

The White House is trying mightily to focus it on real people and the human cost of inaction. But there will be no escaping the same slog that turned off so many people in 2009 — congressional process, arm-twisting and doomsday rhetoric.

So what unfolds over the next few weeks will affect millions of Americans and alter the course of Obama’s presidency. He has a shrinking window in which to find enough votes within his party to pass health care legislation so he can free himself to spend more bully pulpit time on the single issue that has stoked the public ire since he became president — disappearing jobs.

Polling shows the economy remains a bigger personal worry to people than the cost, access and coverage problems endemic to the health care system.

There is a huge economic element to health care as people struggle to pay premiums or keep their insurance. Yet to many, the astounding loss of jobs is a singular issue that demands constant, bold attention.

It is just this competition — the economy versus health care — that helped define Obama’s grueling first year in office and prompted howls within his own party for a recalibrated jobs-first agenda.

Obama responded with a State of the Union speech on Jan. 27 that was remarkably focused on the economy, dwarfing all other issues. “Creating jobs has to be our number one priority in 2010,” Obama emphasized the next day at a stop in Tampa, Florida.

Yet it was always the reality that Obama would consolidate his attention on health care again, at least for one last blitz. Beyond all the policy implications, Obama has spent a year on it and never intended to let that effort go to waste.

The White House’s political calculation is that the next few weeks are their last chance to push through an overhaul of health coverage. But aides also know it cannot drag on, as every day focused on process overshadows their message.

There is no expectation within the West Wing that voters’ moods will change until they see their lives improving. Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said the plan is to keep plugging away on an agenda to shore up the economy for the long haul.

“We’re going to still be out there on jobs,” Axelrod said, dismissing any worry that the economy-first message will be obscured. “We’re going to be focused on health care for the next few weeks, but we’re still going to be doing jobs.”

To get votes, Obama is lobbying lawmakers, many of whom are teetering in this election year. He’s calling on his 2008 campaign supporters to push Congress for a vote. He’s staging health care events in Philadelphia and St. Louis this coming week.

“They are looking at the election in November, and they need to have one big victory that they can claim,” said Michael Lind, policy director of the economic growth program at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. “This is not the victory they would have chosen, because even if it does help the economy, it won’t help most people for years to come. The problem is, there just doesn’t seem to be the ability to do anything significant about jobs this year.”

The House and Senate have passed versions of a $35 billion bill that offers a tax break to companies that hire workers and extends federal highway programs, but even supporters doubt it will create many jobs. By comparison, the economic stimulus bill enacted last year — and not nearly spent out yet — was an $862 billion measure.

Lawmakers plan more steps this year. But there is less political will to keep spending on big jolts to the economy.

Obama has always argued that overhauling health care is not just about health, but also an economic imperative for families who will suffer “if we let this opportunity pass for another year or another decade or another generation” — a message he conveyed Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Part of Obama’s final argument to Democratic lawmakers is that getting health care done will give them momentum on other issues. It’s possible that the opposite is true, and a defeat now could undermine him on other fronts.

Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley said Obama understands that the rising costs of health care are hurting U.S. economic interests long term. Still, he urged Obama to finish up this priority and pivot back to a heavier jobs message.

“If we wrap this up, if we get this passed, it will become clear that health care was always about jobs,” he said.

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WASHINGTON- In yet another stunning show of disdain for American voters, President Obama had his left wing radicals all over the Sunday morning news shows trying desperately to keep health care reform alive.

Obama has demanded what the White House calls “a simple up or down” vote on the massive spending bill designed to nationalize the U.S. health care system.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and compared passing health care reform to selling pie. Pelosi said “you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie. But you have to have a pie to sell.”

We are still trying to figure out what selling pie has to do with health care reform, especially in light of the fact that the legislation contains a special tax on pie to help fund it.

In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama’s intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics.

Republicans unanimously oppose the Democratic proposals. Without GOP support, Obama’s only chance of emerging with a policy and political victory is to bypass the bipartisanship he promoted during his televised seven-hour health care summit Thursday.

“We’re not talking about changing any rules here,” DeParle said. “All the president’s talking about is: Do we need to address this problem and does it make sense to have a simple, up-or-down vote on whether or not we want to fix these problems?”

DeParle was optimistic that the president would have the votes to pass the massive bill. But none of legislation’s advocates who spoke on Sunday indicated that those votes were in hand.

“I think we will get to that point where we will have the votes,” predicted Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. “I believe that we will pass health care reform this spring.”

In a sober call to arms, Pelosi said lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public. “We’re not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress,” she said. “We’re here to do the job for the American people.”

Pelosi said it took courage for Congress to pass Social Security and Medicare, which eventually became highly popular, she said, “and many of the same forces that were at work decades ago are at work again against this bill.”

It’s unclear whether Pelosi’s remarks will embolden or chill dozens of moderate House Democrats who face withering criticisms of the health care proposal in visits with constituents and in national polls. Republican lawmaker unanimously oppose the health care proposals, and many GOP strategists believe voters will turn against Democrats in the November elections.

Pelosi, from San Francisco, is more liberal than scores of her Democratic colleagues. But she generally walks a careful line between urging them to back left-of-center policies and giving them a green light to buck party leaders to improve their re-election hopes.

Her comments seemed to acknowledge the widely held view that Democrats will lose House seats this fall—maybe a lot. They now control the chamber 255 to 178, with two vacancies. Pelosi stopped well short of suggesting Democrats could lose their majority, but she called on members of her party to make a bold move on health care with no prospects of GOP help.

“Time is up,” she said. “We really have to go forth.”

Her comments somewhat echoed those of President Barack Obama, who said at the end of last week’s bipartisan health care summit that Congress should act on the issue and let voters render their verdicts. “That’s what elections are for,” he said.

The White House is redoubling efforts to remind voters that the Senate passed an Obama-backed health care bill in December with 60 votes. Every Republican voted against that bill. A Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts in January, however, left Democrats one vote shy of the number necessary to overcome GOP filibusters.

As a result, a new plan would call for the House to pass the Senate bill and send it to Obama. The Senate would then use budget reconciliation rules to make several changes demanded by House Democrats. Those rules prohibit filibusters.

Exactly what the legislation would look like remained a matter of negotiation within Democratic ranks. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, “is working with his caucus, the White House and the House leadership on strategy and next steps,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Sunday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky renewed his party’s demand that Obama and the Democrats start over and write a bipartisan health care bill. He said that while the reconciliation process has been used to pass legislation in the past, it should not apply to health care legislation.

“There are a number of other Republicans who do not think something of this magnitude ought to be jammed down the throats of a public that doesn’t want it through this kind of device,” McConnell said.

Pelosi said that “in a matter of days” Democrats will have specific legislative language on health care to show to the public and to wavering lawmakers. She predicted voters will warm up to the bill once they understand its details.

“When we have a bill,” she said, “you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie. But you have to have a pie to sell.”

Pelosi appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” DeParle was on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while Menendez appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and McConnell spoke on CNN.

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Saturday that he’s ready to compromise with Republicans if they’re serious about it but that his health care overhaul must go forward.

Obama’s comments in his weekly Internet and radio address, two days after an all-day bipartisan summit across from the White House, were the latest sign that Democrats are girding to try to plow sweeping health care legislation through Congress with no Republicans on board.

Success will require colossal efforts on the part of Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress to round up votes after a year of corrosive debate and a Senate special-election upset that threw the overhaul effort into limbo last month. But Obama and the Democrats reject the piecemeal approach sought by Republicans and have no intention of scrapping their 10-year, $1 trillion bill and starting over as the GOP demands.

“I am eager and willing to move forward with members of both parties on health care if the other side is serious about coming together to resolve our differences and get this done. But I also believe that we cannot lose the opportunity to meet this challenge,” Obama said.

“The tens of millions of men and women who cannot afford their health insurance cannot wait another generation for us to act. Small businesses cannot wait. Americans with pre-existing conditions cannot wait. State and federal budgets cannot sustain these rising costs.

“It is time for those of us in Washington to live up to our responsibilities to the American people and to future generations,” Obama said. “So let’s get this done.”
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Obama’s legislation would insure some 30 million more Americans over 10 years with a new requirement for nearly everyone to carry insurance and would end insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Republicans generally oppose mandates that make everyone get insurance, and although they want people with pre-existing conditions to be able to buy insurance, they would try to address the problem without new requirements on insurance companies.

Obama plans to unveil an updated proposal this coming week, likely on Wednesday, according to press secretary Robert Gibbs. Gibbs suggested it would include concepts put forward by Republicans at the summit. One Republican who was there, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was contacted Friday by the White House and asked to submit details of suggestions he made on rooting out waste and fraud from the medical system, Coburn’s spokesman said.

Spokesman John Hart said that Coburn views Obama’s legislation as a government takeover and would not be able to support it even if it’s changed to include some of his proposals.

Adding Republican ideas is not likely to win Republican votes because the GOP insists Democrats should start from scratch. But Obama would be able to say that he’d listened to Republicans and attempted to meet them part way, and that could give Democrats political cover to move forward on their own. Doing so would require use of controversial Senate rules that would let Democrats pass legislation with a simple majority instead of the 60-vote supermajority they no longer command.

The approach infuriates Republicans and is opposed by some Democratic moderates because of its partisan nature.

Coburn, the GOP’s weekly address, argued against a Democrats-only bill.

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Its an interesting time in politics. Americans, frustrated with the current Jimmy Carter like malaise in Washington, are lashing out like never before against the political tyranny of the Obama administration and the seemingly deaf ear that the democrats are turning toward the very people that put them in office.

All across America, the people are showing their frustration with the democrats and Obama by voting for republicans in an attempt to slow the spread of Obamunism.

Meanwhile, Obama and Nancy Pelosi continue to push health care reform, even though it is incredibly unpopular with the people. The people have been against this from the start, but the media, desperate to prop up their golden boy, kept trying to convince the people that socialized medicine was a good idea and good for Americans.

It was during the summer break in Congress when the congressmen had to go face their constituents, that the truth was learned. The people came out in droves to town hall meetings to tell their elected officials what they thought about health care reform.

The media again tried to keep Obamacare alive by first ignoring the town hall meeting melees, then ridiculing the “Tea Party” protesters by calling them “Tea Baggers” a sexual reference, claiming that these people were in the minority and their protests were “racially motivated.” Oh how quickly we forget.

Only after all of this did the American people turn out to show the democrats how angry they really were by voting out any incumbent or democrat they could.

Still, with all of the resistance from the people, Obama and Pelosi are still trying to push health care reform. As early as this morning, Obama showed his disdain of the people by saying, “We are going to move forward with or without republican support and pass this thing.”

Obama continued “If the people don’t like it, (pause for stuttering) well that’s what elections are for.” The level of arrogance displayed by Obama is what really pisses the American voter off. The guy just doesn’t get it.

This is not the Obama the people voted for. If you subtract the blacks who voted for Obama simply because he is half black, it was largely white America that elected Obama. They did so because Obama seemed like a regular Joe. Like a real person interested in the people of America.

Instead what they got the day after the election was an arrogant, pompous asshole hell bent on turning America into France.

Today as I type this, Obama and the left wing of the democratic party are planing to subjugate the American people and make an end run around the U.S. Constitution by using reconciliation to ram health care reform through the senate.

This is the same reconciliation process that the democrats in Washington today derided when the republicans under G.W. Bush were going to use it to pass their legislation back in 2005.

The hypocrisy continues to drive the democrats further into the political cellar. I am sure there is more to come. JD

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Ah, the subtle ironies of life. Joe the plumber. Remember this guy? He dared to ask then candidate Obama about buying a new business and how Obama was going to raise taxes on small businesses if elected.

Obama’s answer was actually a precursor to the way things have turned out with his presidency. Obama stammered through a lot of platitudes that never really answered poor Joe’s original question.

Meanwhile, the liberal media, seemingly embarrassed by a country bumkin like Joe the Plumber, went on the offensive and attacked Joe the Plumber for weeks, making fun of and ridiculing him. Making him out to be a charlatan for asking a hypothetical question of the media’s golden boy, Barack Obama.

The media elite sent out their staffers and reporters to dig up any dirt on Joe the Plumber that they could find. Nothing was going to stop them from getting a dullard elected to the highest office in the land.

Joe was put on the defensive. It was learned that he was not a licensed plumber at all, but a menial laborer for another plumber. His tax records were scrutinized and made public. Joe’s personal life was dragged into the spotlight for all to see.

Here we are a year and a half later, and Joe the Plumber is still looking for his fifteen minutes of fame by telling the very same media that Palin and McCain somehow “used” him and just wanted to get elected.

When asked why he was biting McCain’s hand, after it was McCain who shone the national spotlight on him by repeated references in a presidential candidates’ debate, Joe said “I don’t owe him shit. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”

We think that perhaps Joe the Plumber is a bit confused here. McCain and Palin simply referenced his question to Obama in stump speeches. They didn’t vilify him and publicly flog him like the liberal media did.

The way the media portrayed Joe the Plumber, you would have thought he was a shill that was told what questions to ask Obama by McCain himself, but clearly that is not the way it happened.

Today, the media is still trying to prop us their golden boy, but almost daily Obama proves to us all that he is way in over his head. The man will be the next Jimmy Carter. We here at BrokenCountry.com have been saying this since before the election.

It makes us wonder if things would have turned out different if Joe the Plumber was not dragged through the mud by Obama and his accomplices in the media.

Had the media simply back the right candidate, Hillary Clinton, where would our economy be today? Hillary had been in the white house with her husband Bill Clinton for eight years. Clearly she was the most experienced candidate.

Think about it. If Hillary Clinton was elected president, the democrats would not be running for their elective lives this coming November.

Hillary has been down “health care reform road” before with Bill. She is smarter then to think that she could simply force ideas upon Americans with complete disregard for what Americans want. It would have completely changed the current political landscape of Washington today.

Ten years from today when looking back at the recession, the 2008 elections and everything in between, it should be the American media that are held responsible for the debacle we call the Obama Administration. JD

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This is embarrassing.   How many times can the Obama administration officials pull boneheaded moves and get away with it?   Robert Gibbs is the White House Press Secretary,  Not Shecky Green on stage at the Improv.

Gibbs represents the President of the United States,  so either this was a directive of President Obama,  or Gibbs making a fool of himself.  You don’t stand up there,  representing the President,  all the while cracking jokes.

Sarah Palin is a private citizen at this point,  not a politician.   She is not open to scrutiny from the sitting administration.

Its no wonder the world looks at Obama as a buffoon.   JD

WASHINGTON — Even the White House’s top spokesman is getting in on the act of mocking former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for looking to talking points written on her palm during a speech to “tea party” activists.

Robert Gibbs showed the words “hope” and “change” on his hand as he started his daily briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

Many in the room, where President Barack Obama had spoken just moments before about the need for bipartisanship, groaned at the political shot.

Palin spoke Saturday in Nashville and photographs and video show she had “energy,” “tax” and “lift American spirits” on her hand. During one question, she looked down at the palm of her hand for a cue.

In her speech she mocked Obama’s use of teleprompters.

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President Obama, after spending his entire first year jetting about the world meeting foreign leaders and trying to secure the Olympic Games for Chicago in 2016 only to be snubbed by the International Olympic Committee, held a press conference today.

Obama, stammering through most of the questions and answers portion of the conference, talked about creating a jobs bill and health care reform.

When asked by a reporter why he would still be pushing the current health care package when the house and the senate will not pass the legislation, Obama spoke mostly in platitudes and mentioned California, where health premiums just went up thirty nine percent.

When the follow up question was asked, Why not start over on health care reform, Obama said “there are key issues in the current legislation that we need to get past in a bipartisan way.”

President Obama was clearly out of his element during the Q and A portion of the press conference. He seemed lonely without the help of his teleprompters to tell him want to say. He was searching for words, sometimes actually stuttering worse than George W. Bush.

When asked about how he was going to create jobs, Obama said, “We are going to have to be on the cutting edge of green energy, and if we are going to lead the world in this technology, we have to invest in it.”

Obama also added that “nuclear generation” of electricity would be a part of that jobs bill.

When asked if he could get a bill passed that included the nuclear power generation, Obama said he would have to work with both parties and environmentalists to get it passed.

Obama was then asked about Iran and the implications of refining a higher quality grade of uranium, Obama threatened more economic sanctions. Obama also said that the U.N. would be involved in the process of stopping Iran in their quest for nuclear weapons.

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City Council member Larry Seabrook is facing federal criminal charges in an indictment expected Tuesday afternoon, sources said.

Details were unavailable about the nature of the charges against the three-term city official, a former state senator.

People briefed on the matter told the New York Times the charges include money laundering, conspiracy to commit mail fraud mail and wire fraud, mail and wire fraud, extortion and receiving an unlawful gratuity.

The indictment apparently stems from a joint city-state probe of City Council funding of non-profit groups. Seabrook was already in custody after his arrest, sources said.

The federal indictment will be unsealed later Tuesday.

The Bronx council member is also a former state assemblyman.

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No he Don Benton is not really the son of Colonel Sanders. I just thought there was a striking resemblance. Ed.

State Sen. Don Benton has become the latest, and possibly the strongest, candidate to announce he’s running for Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s seat this fall.

Benton, R-Vancouver, has been a state senator since 1996 and also served a term in the state House of Representatives. He said Sunday he was inspired in part by Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts, and he’s retained the same consulting team behind Brown’s candidacy.

State Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz called Benton’s legislative record “unimpressive.” He said Benton “may be the strongest candidate in the race so far,” but only because the other six candidates have no political experience.

Benton said he believes in “common-sense conservatism” and criticized Murray as “moving in lock-step” with President Obama on an agenda to nationalize banks, medicine and the auto industry.

A critic of big government and an opponent of tax increases, he says he’s in alignment with members of the Tea Party movement and their call for smaller government and lower taxes. Benton said he has never voted to increase taxes in his 16-year tenure in the Legislature.

The 52-year-old Republican operates a business, The Benton Group, that runs sales-training programs, advertising and marketing seminars, mostly for TV stations.

In 1998, Benton unsuccessfully ran against Democratic U.S. Rep. Brian Baird of Vancouver for a seat in the U.S. House.

Also running against Murray are: Chris Widener, a motivational writer and speaker from Preston; Sean Salazar, a Mountlake Terrace chiropractor; Clint Didier, a former tight end for the Washington Redskins and the Green Bay Packers from Pasco; Craig Williams, an energy trader and Realtor from Vancouver; Arthur Coday Jr., a physician from Shoreline; and Rod Rieger, owner of a security-systems company in Marysville.

Benton said he believes he has more experience and better fundraising skills than any of the other Republican candidates.

Murray, who is serving her third term as U.S. senator, has a huge fundraising lead over all the challengers. She reported more than $5 million in cash on hand at the end of last year, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Benton touted his experience as chairman of the state Republican Party in 2000, during which time he says he was a highly successful fundraiser for the party.

But during his tenure, Benton was criticized for not spending enough money on candidates in the fall 1999 campaigns, and for buying a building in Olympia and announcing the party would move there from Tukwila without getting approval from the party’s executive board.

He ignored calls by the executive board to resign and eventually was ousted and replaced by Chris Vance after eight months as chairman.

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President Obama, still trying to convince himself that its everybody else, not him, has once again let his ego get the best of him. In another colossal blunder, The White House has now accused any and all of its critics of helping to further the cause of Al Qaeda!

We here at BrokenCountry.com want to make sure we have this straight. Obama, who is a meglomaniac that has become so obsessed with being loved by the people, is now telling people that if you disagree with his policy and you are critical of his administration, you are aiding and abetting America’s sworn enemy?

Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism — responds to critics of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism policies by saying “Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda.”

Brennan writes that, “Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill.”

In the oped, titled “‘We need no lectures’: Administration disrupts terrorists’ plots, takes fight to them abroad,” Brennan writes that politics “should never get in the way of national security. But too many in Washington are now misrepresenting the facts to score political points, instead of coming together to keep us safe.”

The administration op-ed is in response to a USA Today editorial entitled “National security team fails to inspire confidence; Officials’ handling of Christmas Day attack looks like amateur hour.”

Brennan provides a detailed defense of the administration’s handling of failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab whom, he says, was “thoroughly interrogated and provided important information.”

He suggests that many critics are hypocritical and clueless.

The most important breakthrough in the interrogation occurred “after Abdulmutallab was read his rights, which the FBI made standard policy under Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s attorney general,” he writes, noting that failed shoe bomber Richard Reid “was read his Miranda rights five minutes after being taken off a plane he tried to blow up. The same people who criticize the president today were silent back then.”

Brennan said anyone who wants to change the policy would be casting aside lessons learned “in waging this war” on extremists.

“Terrorists such as Jose Padilla and Saleh al-Mari did not cooperate when transferred to military custody, which can harden one’s determination to resist cooperation,” he writes.

He calls it “naive to think that transferring Abdulmutallab to military custody would have caused an outpouring of information. There is little difference between military and civilian custody, other than an interrogator with a uniform. The suspect gets access to a lawyer, and interrogation rules are nearly identical.”

Moreover, Brennan says, hundreds of terrorists have been convicted in criminal courts while only three have been convicted in the military tribunal system.

The former CIA official also asserts that the Obama administration is doing a better job than the Bush administration did in taking the fight to al Qaeda. “This administration’s efforts have disrupted dozens of terrorist plots against the homeland and been responsible for killing and capturing hundreds of hard-core terrorists, including senior leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond — far more than in 2008.”

“We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war,” he says.

USA Today’s editorial writers see it all a bit differently, of course, writing that though “the Obama administration’s national security officials have struggled to assure the public that they know exactly what they’re doing,” they are so far “achieving the opposite, and they’re needlessly adding some jitters in the process.”

The editorial writers fault the Obama administration for announcing “last week that an attack by al-Qaeda is likely in the next three to six months. The warning is bound to frighten the public, with no obvious benefit beyond the ability to say ‘I told you so.’”

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At the end of a rough couple of weeks, some good news for the Obama administration: falling unemployment

I had to get this article from The Guardian UK because the American media doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge the fact that Obama is clearly in over his head. Ed.

It might not sound like much, but a surprise dip in the US unemployment rate is the best piece of news the White House and Democrats have had for a long time. With official figures showing the headline rate of unemployment falling below the 10% mark to 9.7%, the economy is no longer just supplying bad headlines.

Amidst all the talk about tea parties and a Republican resurgence, the economy and the jobs market remain the most pressing issues in the minds of voters, even more than terrorism, healthcare or even the government budget deficit. Until the economy turns around, the political fate of both Obama and the Democrats remains dangerously uncertain.

Obama had bad luck in one sense. While the weakening economy and collapsing housing market undoubtedly helped Obama win the 2008 presidential election, because of the time lags involved the rise in unemployment continued throughout his first year in office – identifying his administration with a grim job market.

So a fall in the headline rate, especially getting it below the eye-catching 10% level, is the sort of news Obama and the Democrats need if they want to convince voters that things are improving and the economy is back on track. If the past is any guide, it will take several months of continuing falls for that idea of recovery to seep through into the American consciousness, and there might still be time for that to happen before the 2010 midterm elections in November. Time is running out.

Away from the headline figure the jobs statistics aren’t all that great – in fact, the number of jobs in the economy actually fell by a fraction (that’s still 20,000 jobs, given the size of the US market), thanks to a different measurement, hence the fall in the unemployment rate despite the fall in actual jobs.

This sort of news will have to keep coming to help the Democrats. There has been other good news, with the fourth quarter of 2009 showing robust growth and even manufacturing is looking perky. The Economist, for one, isn’t convinced, calling this a “jobless recovery” and pointing out that 15 million Americans remain out of work. There’s a long way left to go, especially in housing and construction. Whether a full-blown recovery will happen in time to save the Democrats in November is unlikely but not impossible.

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Its about time President Obama realizes that people do not want government sponsored health care. The federal government mismanages virtually every program they currently run, why would health care be any different?

Nothing like watching Obama get knocked a few rungs down the political ladder. Perhaps now he will be an effective president. One more thing. Get rid of your speaker of the house. Pelosi is an embarrassment to the democrat party. JD

WASHINGTON – After insisting for a year that failure was not an option, President Barack Obama is now acknowledging his health care overhaul may die in Congress.

His remarks at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday night sounded contradictory at times, complicating congressional leaders’ effort to revive health care legislation as Democrats hunger for guidance from the White House. Even while saying he still wanted to get the job done, Obama counseled going slow, and bowed to new political realities. Democrats no longer command a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and voters and lawmakers are far more concerned with jobs and the economy than with enacting sweeping and expensive changes to the health system.

“I think it’s very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let’s go ahead and make a decision,” Obama said Thursday night.

“And it may be that … if Congress decides we’re not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not,” the president said. “And that’s how democracy works. There will be elections coming up and they’ll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time.”

It seemed to be a shift in tone for the issue Obama campaigned on and made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda last year.

“Here’s the key, is to not let the moment slip away,” Obama also said.

Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans passed both chambers of Congress last year and was on the verge of completion before Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory in a Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election last month. Brown was sworn in Thursday, giving Republicans 41 votes, enough to block the initiatives of the Democratic majority.

Now the health legislation hangs in limbo. Lawmakers are looking to Obama for a path forward, but he has not publicly offered specifics. His signals have been mixed. At the DNC event he said Republicans should be part of the process — something they’ve shown little interest in and that would doubtlessly drag out a legislative effort that many rank-and-file Democrats want to end quickly. The health care bill has become unpopular with the public and a political drag for lawmakers.

“The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas. What I’d like to do is have a meeting whereby I’m sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let’s just go through these bills. … And then I think that we’ve got to go ahead and move forward on a vote,” Obama said Thursday.

“But as I said at the State of the Union, I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We’re going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that’s the thing that’s most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday that there is no meeting set yet for the president to talk over health care strategy with Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

“There’s nothing on the block on this right now,” he said. “But I think this just goes to the president continuing to want to hear ideas.”

Bipartisan congressional leaders are planning to join Obama at the White House on Tuesday, but Gibbs reiterated that the meeting will be centered on how to create jobs and boost the economy.

Obama had also said Thursday night that “we’ve got to move forward on a vote” on health care. When asked what the president meant by that, Gibbs said only that White House officials are “still working with Capitol Hill on the best way forward.”

Obama’s comments came just hours after he met Thursday afternoon with Democratic congressional leaders, but the discussion focused mostly on jobs, and the leaders emerged with no announcement about a path ahead for health care. Rank-and-file Democrats are eager for them to settle on one by the end of next week, after which lawmakers will return to their states and districts for a weeklong recess where they’ll likely face questions from voters on the issue.

Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said Friday that the White House has not requested a sit-down on health care with Republicans.

“The president wants to start over on health care? Sen. McConnell’s been saying that for months,” said Stewart.

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can you imagine this scenario? Here we are in 2010, in a country that has been completely overrun by the politicians, the lazy and inept, and completely ignored by the working class.

Unemployment has been at 5.4 percent for a decade, and when unemployment doubles to ten percent, the government cannot survive. This is how incredibly dependent the government has become on our tax dollars.

Welfare, unions, taking care of those that refuse to work, these are the things that have become more important to our elected officials. Meanwhile, the lines at the hands of the government grow larger. The people that are willing to work are now out of work, and our fearless leader seems to think that a new entitlement like free health care is the answer to all of America’s woes.

The government, stymied by the colossal failure of our fearless leader, can do nothing more than think of new ways to screw the taxpaying, working American out of more of his earnings.

All the while the fearless leader is busy one year after taking office, blaming the previous administration and the republicans for stopping his “economic revival.”

People that oppose the fearless leader are labeled. Hate mongers. Racists. Tea Baggers. The list goes on and on.

An elite class of people are now running the country. These people seem to disregard our wishes and our demands.

When a government becomes so dependent on our income that they cannot survive a five percent dip in that income, something is horribly wrong with the machine.

The time to act is now. Stand up and be counted. Ed

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