Great article from the Wall Street Journal:

“In his column for the Washington Post on Tuesday, the influential conservative George Will provided intellectual fodder for the campaign among some Republicans to hang the Afghanistan war around the Obama administration’s neck. Washington, he wrote, should “keep faith” with our fighting men and women by “rapidly reversing the trajectory of America’s involvement in Afghanistan.” “Obama’s war,” a locution one is now beginning to hear from other conservatives, is an expression of discontent that has been smoldering beneath the surface for several months.

The weakening public support for continuing the counterinsurgency campaign is not surprising. In the midst of an economic crisis people are tempted to draw inward. Add to that a general war weariness in the U.S. and the fact that the Afghanistan war is not going well right now—violence in Afghanistan is already far worse this year than last—and you have the makings of an unpopular conflict.

But the case of conservative opposition to the war in Afghanistan—as well as increasingly in Iraq—is symptomatic of something larger: the long history of political parties out of power advancing a neo-isolationist outlook. For example, Democrats were vocal opponents of President Reagan’s support for the Nicaraguan contras and the democratic government in El Salvador, the U.S. invasion of Grenada, the deployment of cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe, and the forceful stand against the Soviet Union generally.”

Full article

Obama caves to Republican pressure all while controlling the White House, the Senate (with a super majority) and the House of Representatives.

The crazies on the Left are going insane over it! Read them freak out here, here and here! Some of the best comments are:

“There goes any shred of support his administration will ever receive from me.”

“If this bill dies, I agree with you completely. He’s caving, and I won’t support anyone that caves like this.”

“So what were we fighting for? If this is going to be thrown under the bus… WTF?”

“Democrats don’t need to compromise here. They hold everything. Anyone who thought the Democratic party was fighting for a higher standard of living for them may now admit that most of it isn’t.”

“Honestly if he does do this,then I won’t feel bad if some nazi kills Obama,because of all the people that will die from health insurance from lack of coverage will be his fault.”

“With no public option, it will be worse than the status quo.”

“I can understand a president giving up a chance at a second term… in order to give the American people what he promised them and what they so desperately need. But it seems as if Obama is going to give up his second term in order to make the republican party look like the winners and betray the people that voted for him. It’s really weird.”

Obama’s $17 Billion Budget Cuts In Context

While the president’s $100 million dollar cuts weren’t even a drop in a bucket, the $17 billion in cuts at least means something. But it’s a far cry from the “net spending cuts” we were promised.

Obama Budget Cuts Visualization

How much is the $100 million dollars in budget cuts compared to the federal budget as a whole? This video imagines the budget as $100 in pennies to provide the answer.

The National Debt Road Trip

How do the Obama deficits compare with past presidents? And how did the national debt get so big anyway. This video tries to answer those questions by looking at the debt as a road trip and seeing how fast different administrations have been traveling.

The Obama Stimulus: Predictions vs. Reality

When pushing the stimulus package, President Obama claimed that the stimulus would save 3 million jobs. How have his predictions turned out so far? This video compares those predictions with how the jobs numbers have actually turned out

If you want to read more on the budget, mathematics and political visualizations, follow 10,000 pennies on Twitter: @PoliticalMath and WordPress at politicalmath.wordpress

Here is the rough cut, original version of “TelePrompTer vs. No TelePrompTer” that David Letterman refused to air. Never before seen, until now.

Original Via Hot Air

The Politico is reporting:

“President Obama’s administration is moving aggressively to protect what the government insists are “state secrets” from a Bush-era wiretapping program.

Justice Department lawyers filed an emergency motion Friday with a federal appeals court in an effort to block a lower court’s order that the government must show lawyers for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation a copy of a document indicating that the group’s communications were being intercepted. The document has been the subject of a running legal battle since the papers were accidentally sent to attorneys for the group in 2004 and subsequently retrieved. [Full Story]

Hope and Change?

Watch the clip and you will see it was President Obama who first, impatiently jumped on Chief Justice Robert’s words set the train wreck of an oath in motion. 

And sure Robert’s inatailly left out the word “faithfully,” – but when he corrected it, Obama ignored it!

Anyone who closely listened to President Obama’s speech yesterday afternoon heard something strangely similar to President Bush.

The Daily Show picked up on it, and had a lot of fun at the President’s expense:

Will Obama’s followers call for his head like that did President Bush’s?