President Obama Rejects Open-Ended Fight in Afghanistan
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/12/01/president-obama-rejects-open-ended-fight-in-afghanistan/

ha

12/1/2009 10:19:35 PM

Video of President Obama's speech given earlier tonight:



[Edited on December 2, 2009 at 12:47 AM. Reason : .]

12/2/2009 12:45:18 AM

I was glad to see this bit "We will remove our combat brigades from Iraq by the end of next summer, and all of our troops by the end of 2011" & "taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011." I think that the time to end the wars is sooner rather than later, but a part of me is glad to at least see some kind of end in sight even if it is 18 months away.

12/2/2009 1:32:10 AM

Quote :

" President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech left a bad taste in many mouths. By Gabor Steingart, Der Spiegel Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught. One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received. Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool. One didn't have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama's speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly. An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan -- and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war -- and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate. Just in Time for the Campaign The speech continued in that vein. It was as though Obama had taken one of his old campaign speeches and merged it with a text from the library of ex-President George W. Bush. Extremists kill in the name of Islam, he said, before adding that it is one of the "world's great religions." He promised that responsibility for the country's security would soon be transferred to the government of President Hamid Karzai -- a government which he said was "corrupt." The Taliban is dangerous and growing stronger. But "America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars," he added. It was a dizzying combination of surge and withdrawal, of marching to and fro. The fast pace was reminiscent of plays about the French revolution: Troops enter from the right to loud cannon fire and then they exit to the left. And at the end, the dead are left on stage. Obama's Magic No Longer Works In his speech on America's new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught. The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,664753,00.html

12/2/2009 10:24:39 AM

^ That article proves nothing. Bush demanded vague sacrifices in order to "get the terrorists," even though we were fighting in Iraq, where they appeared only AFTER we blew away Saddam. Besides, the Germans haven't been all that enthusiastic about supporting American war efforts lately anyway, so this is just more of the same.

12/2/2009 10:43:20 AM

I wonder if I can find an opinion piece that comes to the exact opposite conclusion. Yeah! That'll show 'em!

[Edited on December 2, 2009 at 11:20 AM. Reason : Z]

12/2/2009 11:20:02 AM

13 new stem cell lines approved for research

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-12-02-obama-stem-cell_N.htm

Quote :

""Eventually, the new guidelines will open up several hundred lines,” says Dartmouth bioethicist Ronald Green. "Researchers need to be patient." In July, the NIH answered President Obama's call for new federal funding rules for human embryonic stem cell research, overturning Aug. 9, 2001, Bush administration rules that limited funding to 21 lines created before that date."

12/2/2009 7:29:14 PM

Quote :

"President Barack Obama and his aides have seen their political mortality. Confronting the complexities and dangers of the Afghan escalation has ushered in a new, more grounded reality for a White House that has gotten far on Obama’s charm, congressional might and a campaign cockiness aides carried into the West Wing. That’s over. White House officials now are bracing for brutal months ahead, filled with second-guessing on the war plan and mounting casualties, along with deepening unemployment and a legislative slog on financial reform and climate change. Through it all, the nation has seen the president confront a challenge that has split his party, divided him from his most loyal followers and left him no truly good choices. Here’s what we’ve learned from watching Obama and his team craft the policy and the speech that deepened U.S. involvement in Afghanistan: "

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30109.html

12/2/2009 10:42:34 PM

Desiree Rogers Will Skip Hearing; New White House Social Guidelines
Posted: 12/2/09

Quote :

"The White House will not allow Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify on Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee, which is looking into how aspiring reality TV stars Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed President Obama's Nov. 24 state dinner, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. And, as the Obama White House kicks off its heaviest entertaining season of the year, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina ordered new guidelines on Thursday to avoid a repeat of such an incident. Messina issued a memo spelling out that in the future personnel from the Social Office will be on duty at each Secret Service guest checkpoint. Rogers has been criticized for not posting a staffer at the entrance to the East Wing, though members of her office were in the vicinity."

http://tinyurl.com/y88oytl

So much for transparency. Oh, wait. . .

BUSH

DID

IT

12/3/2009 10:09:58 AM

Quote :

"The U.S. unemployment rate edged down to 10 percent in November from 10.2 percent the month before, as the economy struggled to claw its way back from a deep recession. ... A relatively few 11,000 American jobs were lost in November, compared to 111,000 jobs that vanished in October. Analysts had expected a much higher jobs-lost number in November -- as many as 130,000. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120400572.html

12/4/2009 9:13:35 AM

In past years, we saw 100k or more (temporary) jobs added during the months of November/December for holiday-related service jobs. The fact that we only lost 11k isn't good news, because many of those temporary retail jobs are gone come January. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like 200,000 jobs lost in January or February. Of course, that 10% number isn't the "real unemployment" rate, anyway.

12/4/2009 9:25:36 AM

12/4/2009 10:36:22 AM

Quote :

" ... All we can say is "wow" at this point. The Genachowski-led FCC has been relentless in its effort to disrupt the status quo. In office for six months, Genachowski and team are drafting a national broadband plan; working on net neutrality rules; fingering companies like Google, Apple, and Verizon; dealing with spectrum reallocation; handling the nuts-and-bolts of white space device deployment; threatening to extend neutrality rules to wireless networks; and considering the transition from traditional circuit-switched phone networks to a full-IP communications network. Now, we can add "shaking up the cable industry" to the list. Looking at the topics taken up so far, each is big-picture, disruptive, and pro-network openness. None are particularly radical; indeed, each idea simply develops programs and policies decided on by earlier FCC administrations, some of them Republican. Network neutrality builds on the Internet policy statement, open access rules on wireless follow from the open access rules on the 700MHz spectrum auction, and the new TV initiative builds on the decade-old CableCARD push. The National Broadband Plan, which is new, was mandated by Congress. So Genachowski doesn't seem to be a radical, but he does appear to be both relentless and ambitious in his quest to see these ideas carried through to their maximum potential for disruptive innovation. And he's not above irritating just about every major incumbent with a network to do it. ..."

- http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/fcc-admits-cablecard-a-failure-vows-to-try-something-else.ars

The article is about CableCARD tech, but it does show that Obama's new guy for the FCC is moving very quickly.

12/4/2009 1:19:26 PM

Quote :

""

lol. perfect.

12/4/2009 1:46:59 PM

Right, because the idea health care reform is causing small businesses to cringe in fear. Just ask the US Chamber, which quotes Dow Jones and WSJ in their television ads. Surely two entities owned by Rupert Murdoch can be trusted to provide a fair analysis here.

12/4/2009 2:41:58 PM

^ not to mention that the unemployment rate has been rising steadily for almost 3 years now. Maybe someone invents a time machine and went back to 2007 to tell employers to stop hiring because Obama is going to be president.

http://seattlebubble.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/unemployment-rate_2009-05.png



[Edited on December 4, 2009 at 6:46 PM. Reason : ]

12/4/2009 6:44:12 PM

Barack Obama Ecstasy Pills Hit Streets: Approval Ratings High


http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/02/crimesider/entry5864845.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.3

12/4/2009 7:07:01 PM

Roger Pilon, Cato Institute...

Quote :

"Today’s White House “jobs summit” reflects little more, doubtless, than growing administration panic over the political implications of the unemployment picture. With the 2010 election season looming just ahead, and little prospect that unemployment numbers will soon improve, Democrats feel compelled to “do something” — reflecting their general belief that for nearly every problem there’s a government solution. The main reason we’re in this mess, after all, is because government – from the Fed’s easy money to the Community Reinvestment Act and the policies of Freddy and Fannie — encouraged what amounted to a giant Ponzi scheme. So what is the administration’s response to this irresponsible behavior? Why, it’s brainchilds like ”cash for clunkers,” which cost taxpayers $24,000 for each car sold. Comedians can’t make this stuff up. It takes big-government thinkers. Americans will start to find jobs not when government pays them to sweep streets or caulk their own homes but when small businesses get back on their feet. Yet that won’t happen as long as the kinds of taxes and national indebtedness that are inherent in such schemes as ObamaCare hang over our heads. Milton Friedman put it well: “No one spends someone else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.” Yet the very definition of Obamanomics is spending other people’s money. If he’s truly worried about the looming 2010 elections (and beyond), Mr. Obama should look to the editorial page of this morning’s Wall Street Journal, where he’ll read that in both Westchester and Nassau Counties in New York — New York! — Democratic county executives have just been thrown out of office, and the dominant reason is taxes. Two more on the unemployment rolls."

Quote :

"No private sector experience necessary R.D. Walker In his book Dreams From my Father, Obama disparaged his extremely limited time in the private sector. He considered himself a “spy behind enemy lines.” "Eventually a consulting house to multinational corporations agreed to hire me as a research assistant. Like a spy behind enemy lines, I arrived every day at my mid-Manhattan office and sat at my computer terminal, checking the Reuters machine that blinked bright emerald messages from across the globe." Let there be no doubt that Obama has little respect for the productive portion on the economy and puts all of his confidence into the parasitic portion. His cabinet appointments reflect that distrust of the private sector. Nick Schultz at the Enterprise Blog explains. A friend sends along the following chart from a J.P. Morgan research report. It examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900 that one might expect a president to turn to in seeking advice about helping the economy. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security"

[Edited on December 4, 2009 at 10:55 PM. Reason : .]

12/4/2009 10:50:54 PM

Uh oh, don't look now, but someone's making up yet another conspiracy!

12/4/2009 10:57:49 PM

haha, those GWB and GHWB private sector guys surely did great things for the economy.

It’s articles like that why conservative “think tanks” don’t really get a lot of intellectual respect.

12/4/2009 11:11:51 PM

Oh yeah, that is from Cato. No wonder. I can make up SHOCKING STATISTICS TOO... 99% of the people working at the White House are NOT Obama! They clearly do not know his thinking about anything! OMG

12/5/2009 12:18:45 AM

Quote :

"The Return of Hoovernomics? Steven Horwitz So a president early in his first term is faced with a recession that includes a stubborn unemployment rate. What does he do? Why he calls a conference on unemployment to bring together business, labor, and political leaders to figure out what should be done to solve the problem by urging cooperation and planning rather than competitive, market-driven solutions. Obama? Nope, Herbert Hoover. Not only several as president in 1929, but also as Secretary of Commerce during the 1920-21 recession. In the 1920-21 case, it was all a lot of hot air as none of his plans went into practice and the economy recovered reasonably quickly. The 1929 case was a different story, as it was out of a series of such conferences that emerged the promises to maintain nominal wages in the face of falling prices. Those promises were sufficiently kept to drive unemployment up even higher, eventually to the 25% range that characterized the depths of the Great Depression. Thankfully nothing that bad seems to have come out of this week's conference, but given the current administration's Hoover-like distrust of private enterprise as well as its Hoover-like track record, perhaps it's only a matter of time."

http://ow.ly/IZHS

12/6/2009 5:49:05 PM

He's simultaneously Mao and Hoover.

He's whatever the right can manage to stick to him, it appears.

12/6/2009 5:54:58 PM

Next he'll be Johnson and Nixon.

12/6/2009 6:13:29 PM

12/6/2009 11:48:40 PM

I'm sure there were some pretty lame-looking McCain voters out there too.

12/7/2009 12:24:59 AM

Latest Quinnipiac poll:

Quote :

"President Obama's personal approval rating has fallen to 46%, an all-time low. Among independent voters, only 37% now like the job he's doing. "Analyzed by religion, Obama gets a thumbs up from 32% of white Protestants, 42% of white Roman Catholics and 52% of Jews," says Quinnipiac. That last figure, largely predicated on Jewish concerns about Mr. Obama's Mideast policy and the economy, represents a shocking drop in Jewish support. Just over a year ago Mr. Obama won 78% of Jewish voters against John McCain."

12/10/2009 12:59:39 PM

Accepting peace prize, Obama defends war
President acknowledges his few accomplishments, defends military actions
updated 36 minutes ago

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34358659/ns/politics-white_house

LOL! The headline says it all.

12/10/2009 2:33:47 PM

LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

This is good though. That he acknowledges he has not yet accomplished much to warrant the prize, he GAINS credibility. I'm curious though, did you actually read or listen to the acceptence speech? It was excellent.

12/10/2009 3:31:47 PM

If Obama is good at anything, it's not being a blustery jackass at the podium in a foreign country.

12/10/2009 4:41:25 PM

Quote :

"Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world: I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations - that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice. And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize - Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela - my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened of cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women - some known, some obscure to all but those they help - to be far more deserving of this honor than I. But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by forty three other countries - including Norway - in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks."

Quote :

"Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe that the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend."

Quote :

"Let me also say this: the promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach - and condemnation without discussion - can carry forward a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door. In light of the Cultural Revolution's horrors, Nixon's meeting with Mao appeared inexcusable - and yet it surely helped set China on a path where millions of its citizens have been lifted from poverty, and connected to open societies. Pope John Paul's engagement with Poland created space not just for the Catholic Church, but for labor leaders like Lech Walesa. Ronald Reagan's efforts on arms control and embrace of perestroika not only improved relations with the Soviet Union, but empowered dissidents throughout Eastern Europe. There is no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement; pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time. "

12/10/2009 4:51:57 PM

Quote :

"If Obama is good at anything, it's not being a blustery jackass at the podium in a foreign country."

Compared to Bush simply being a jackass everywhere?

12/11/2009 9:00:44 AM

rawr rawr rawr i still hate bush

get over it

12/11/2009 9:43:20 AM

Okay, and rawr rawr rawr you hate Obama. Get over it yourself, champ.

12/11/2009 9:45:56 AM

eh whatever. I don't like him as a president so far but I don't hate him and I don't try to find any and every opportunity to insult him.

12/11/2009 10:32:16 AM

^^^^I see subtlety is not lost on you

12/11/2009 10:50:36 AM

anyone have a link to a video of his full speech? Or if not that a transcript will do.

12/11/2009 11:27:15 AM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/10/obama-nobel-peace-prize-a_n_386837.html

12/11/2009 11:41:31 AM

12/12/2009 2:15:20 AM

after watching the 60 Minutes interview tonight, I turned off the TV thinking he really comes off as an arrogant ass. especially when the person interviewing him asks him tough questions. this is the second or third time I have noticed it.

wasnt that one of the things the libs hated most about Bush?

12/13/2009 10:01:37 PM

If you agree with a person, they're "confident."

If you disagree with a person, they're "arrogant."


But no, the two scenarios aren't analogous. Bush's "confidence" leading up to the Iraq War was in an entirely different ballpark.

12/13/2009 10:34:55 PM

Quote :

"After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

Quote :

"Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011."

--Barack Obama, December 1, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/ybgj67w

Analysis: Afghanistan pullout date not definite
Dec 3, 2009

Quote :

"WASHINGTON — So much for the deadline. President Barack Obama started the clock on the U.S. war in Afghanistan this week, announcing that the beginning of the end would come in July 2011 even as he massively expanded the war by ordering 30,000 new U.S. forces into the fray. Selling that mixed message to Congress just hours later, Obama's three chief war managers promptly put the countdown on hold. The exit strategy isn't absolute, they said, disappointing Democrats for whom the July 2011 date was meant as an olive branch from a Democratic president bearing bad news. No, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the United States wouldn't pack its bags before the Afghan security forces are ready to pick up the job. 'We're not just going to throw these guys into the swimming pool and walk away,' the defense chief said during a daylong promotional tour on Capitol Hill. In the course of Obama's long deliberations about the strategy announced Tuesday, Gates went on record as saying that deadlines are a foolhardy exercise and that the duration of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan is an unfathomable mystery. But back to Capitol Hill, where Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said no, the United States isn't bound to a calendar for the war. 'I do not believe we have locked ourselves into leaving,' Clinton said. 'It is the best assessment of our military experts ... that by July 2011 there can be the beginning of a responsible transition that will of course be based on conditions.' And no, said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the commander in chief hasn't necessarily said his last word on the subject. 'The president has choices as the president,' Mullen said, looking a bit glum."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jZPzaTFGGaYGs6VykDPgsgkOWPdQD9CBN4FO0

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 1:37 AM. Reason : PS: ]

12/14/2009 1:37:11 AM

Quote :

"If you agree with a person, they're "confident." If you disagree with a person, they're "arrogant." But no, the two scenarios aren't analogous. Bush's "confidence" leading up to the Iraq War was in an entirely different ballpark."

no, it has more to do with how visibly irritated BO gets when he is asked a tough question and how he almost always precedes the answer with "look, xxx xxxx..."

it is condescending, and as someone trying to objectively watch, very annoying. even if I agree with whatever he is talking about.

12/14/2009 8:53:12 AM

Quote :

""Throughout his twenty-five years of public service, Barack Obama has made progress on tough issues like health care, death penalty reform, and ethics reform by bringing people of differing views and opinions together to get things done," -Obama campaign manager David Plouffe Jan 2009"

Quote :

"Obama noted that in 1980 Ronald Reagan asked voters whether they were better off than they were four years earlier. The way things are now, Obama said, Americans wonder whether they're better off than they were four weeks ago. -Obama Campaign speech Oct 2008"

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 10:33 AM. Reason : .]

12/14/2009 10:31:39 AM

so now the people who hated him, now really hate him

and the people who loved him like jesus, now just love him like oprah

12/14/2009 10:40:21 AM

^
Pretty much true ..

but the poll also noted that of the independent voters, who basically got Obama elected, only 36% still approve of his performance.

12/14/2009 10:51:22 AM

well there's 3 more years to hate him even more!

12/14/2009 10:51:48 AM

^ And three more years for you to be dismissive of legitimate concerns about Obama's positions. And three more years for you to pretend that you're not doing this, that you're simply a passive observer witnessing all this from a monochrome monitor on Fantasy Island or some such.

12/14/2009 11:40:32 AM

a. Rasmussen has consistently been the outlier.

b. Strongly.

12/14/2009 12:14:19 PM

^ Does CBS News suit you? Obama's approval rating is steadily falling.

Obama Approval Rating Falls to 50 Percent
December 9, 2009

Quote :

"President Obama's job approval rating sits at 50 percent in the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, the lowest level it has reached in CBS News polling. The president still has a net favorable rating, with 50 percent approving of his performance and 39 percent disapproving. But as Mr. Obama has confronted challenges ranging from the economy to the war in Afghanistan to health care, public perception of his handling of his job has steadily fallen."

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/09/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5954932.shtml

12/14/2009 12:30:08 PM