UPDATE:  I apologize to those of you who tried to play the stream and found it was unavailable.  Apparently, the White House site was down.  Is that a bad omen?  I mean think about it. How can the government run health care, if the damn white house server can’t even sustain streaming video?  I kid.  Sort of.

The day has arrived.  The White House and congressional democrats and republicans get together at Blair House, to bash each other’s heads against the wall debating health care reform.  Conservatives are looking for democrats to participate in “good faith,” by flushing the bill down the toilet, and starting from scratch with their ideas.  Democrats are unsure of the level of commitment from the white house and their own midterm prospects– even though the president introduced his own bill just days ago, validating his engagement.  The media has pronounced health care reform dead more times than Jason Voorhies.

Maybe we’ll finally have the answer to these pertinent questions:  Is health care reform really dead?  Will there be any type of bipartisanship coming out of this circus?  Will someone die in that room in Blair House?  Watch all of the sordid drama below, streaming live from Whitehouse.gov.  You can also participate in the live chat.  Exercise your right as an American to yell and squeal at other Americans.  It’s pure democracy in action.

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The nerve of this man!  How dare he show any level of comfort around these white men?  He’s clearly asserting his uppity-ness.   And in the people’s house no less!  Here’s more real down-home American invective from the above email:

Here, here sir!  Who does this ebon-skinned Kenyan think he is?  President?  What American leader would deign to impugn the sacred desk of Queen Victoria?

Oh.  I guess it’s okay to disgrace the office if you’re a white man.  So what is it?  Is it just pure hatred, or blatant racism?  I guess it’s both.

I don’t know who this person writing this ridiculous email is, but he doesn’t live in any America I live in.

This was just too good not to post.  Major hat tip to the mighty, mighty Wonkette.

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If you watched or heard anything from Friday’s monumental meeting between President Barack Obama and House Republicans, then you may have come away  impressed.  In today’s heavily covered political landscape, pure political gamesmanship is going the way of the dodo and the brontosaurus.  The art of deftly pointing and counter-pointing your political rival doesn’t make for riveting television– so it’s often left out of the equation.  The media deems John Edwards’ transgressions against his wife juicy fodder for consumption by the masses.  I suppose it does grade out as newsworthy.  But what I witnessed Friday was real political theater, worthy of the mainstream media stage.

I also discovered something about this president.  Intelligence matters.  Intelligence in men or women in positions of authority matter.  Intelligence int he oval office matters tremendously.  Here’s why.

There is something to be said for intellectual pragmatism.  The doubters of the then presidential candidate Obama, seemed keen on making him into a walking caricature of an ivy league elitist snob– so out of touch with everyday Americans– because he couldn’t bowl or he drank the wrong beer. How often is the intelligence of someone castigated and not made an asset?  It’s seems evident what passes for leadership on the right most days– given their obsession with a mealy-mouthed show-woman– who’d rather discuss book sales than policy.  That, to me, is what makes this president exceptional.

We’ve just left the Bush wilderness.  Eight years of clouded judgment and questionable decisions, were enough to make me long for anyone to swing the bell curve back into positive numbers.  It’s not a crime to desire a leader for his intellectual capabilities.  More often then not, it is because of these capabilities that decisions are not made from macho swagger, but cool reasoning and foresight.  Never was this needed more than right now.

I would imagine that the case against this president’s brand of cool governance will always go as follows:  He’s not passionate enough to care.  He’s too detached to get involved in battles he should be waging.  He’s too rooted in academia to give real solutions to real people.  I’ve heard these arguments, and there is one thing I always think of:  The source of the complaint (usually folks currently not occupying the white house) unaccustomed to an intellectual approach.  They’re still pining for the days of wild, untamed diplomacy.  Hardly a surprise.

It’s hard to get used to the new scene at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  But I feel a measure of relief, now that my faith has been buoyed.  We have quietly ushered in the age of intelligent governance, and I’m loving every minute of it.

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Take a peek at this chart and tell me the pattern you see:

It seems that Republican presidents in the last 30 years have played a bigger role than their democratic counterparts in increasing the national debt.  Why is this important?  GOP arguments of “tax and spend liberals who are mortgaging our children’s future” –don’t exactly add up given the fact that it is Republicans who don’t seem to care about debt we incur– or our children’s future.  Maybe it’s only a valid point when there is a Democrat in the white house.  Just another example of a predictable, hypocritical argument.

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Photo courtesy of The Nation

Okay, let’s take a closer look at President Barack Obama’s first year in office.  Realizing that every possible medium is doing the same thing one year after the historic inauguration, I plan on taking a different approach here.  After this turbulent year in politics, who do we have in the oval office?  Is President Obama the change we all expected?  Was he the transformative agent the masses made him out to be?  To put it simply, yes and no.

Barack’s Darkest Hours:

Health Care Reform was and is the president’s major tent pole legislation.  So it was curious that he entrusted the entire process to a congressional body fully committed to a partisan approach.  The president was determined not to get bogged down in the minutiae and political sniping that engulfed the Clintons’ efforts in 1993.  Republicans’ approach was to negotiate in bad faith, never intending to compromise on any legislation.  That was enough to stall action, and kick in voter angst– witnessed in town halls across the country.  President Obama failed to articulate his ideas for HRC until late in the game, and that resulted in him being outflanked by conservatives, and some members of his own party.

Transparency issues in government have long resulted in voter mistrust.  President Obama swept into office promising a new era of open government.  The results so far have been uneven.  After vowing that health care reform would be debated in full view of the American people, the idea was quickly scuttled.  Brian Lamb, CEO of C-SPAN, is fighting to have his network air coverage.    The president also claimed that there would be a five day period of comment before any bill was signed into law, but that promise was also broken.  White House visitor logs have also been kept a secret for security purposes, but that was a Bush administration policy that was ridiculed by the incoming Obama White House.

The Skip Gates affair was not so much a dark hour, as it was a blunder.  Keep in mind that Henry Louis Gates is a friend of the president, and that friendship is what drove him to immediately excoriate the arresting officer in the case.  But as an outside party without all of the pertinent facts of the case, it would have been wise for the president to steer clear of commenting.  This is usually the president’s modus operandi.  He chose to ignore it, and it dinged him.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. If the nation’s unemployment rate continues to hover around ten percent, then this will signal the death knell for any hope of a second term.

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Photo courtesy of The Nation

Okay, let’s take a closer look at President Barack Obama’s first year in office.  Realizing that every possible medium is doing the same thing one year after the historic inauguration, I plan on taking a different approach here.  After this turbulent year in politics, who do we have in the oval office?  Is President Obama the change we all expected?  Was he the transformative agent the masses made him out to be?  To put it simply, yes and no.

Barack’s Finest hours:

Declassifying memos from President Bush’s legal counsel, that exposed torture techniques the CIA was engaged in.  Look, you can crap on the move all you want, but if you’re an incoming president, determined to transform the atmosphere in Washington from the previous administration–Then this is an important move.  Trying to instill a sense of openness and transparency in government, will go a long way in restoring trust on the part of the people. It was bold, controversial, and correct in my opinion.

His Oslo acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize;  His speech in Cairo. They were fine moments, because they injected heft back into our foreign policy, and they rejected the theme of all-out war with the Islamic world.  That distinction is vitally important.   Having military gravitas with direction is a necessary substitute for an aimless foreign policy.  The president’s speeches re-affirmed our position in fighting a war against rogue states and terrorists bent on our destruction– while seeking to remain grounded to the ideas of pragmatism and relationship building– with those who’d be best served as our allies.

Health Care, Health Care, Health Care. Even those who don’t agree can see that this was a bold, potentially defining (one way or the other) initiative.  I think most of the blow back has occurred because of the amount of time this issue has sapped from other issues.  And in a tough economy, health care reform was always going to be a tough sell.  But it was the right sell, and the right time to sell it, despite the obstacles.  The ideas in the bills on the hill will initiate greater change than we’ve ever seen in this country’s history.  Keep in mind health care reform has been contemplated for over 100 years.  It is, potentially,the greatest piece of legislation this country has ever seen– and it is closer to coming to fruition than ever before.  Kudos President Obama.

Sonia Sotomayor:  It was indeed a year of change.  Nominating the first Hispanic to the nation’s highest court deserves a finest hour nod.  Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation was not without its share of controversy, but the pick was the right one, and it will resonate with Latino-Americans– and all Americans– for years to come.

Coming Friday:  Barack Obama’s low points

George W. Bush:  Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Barack Obama:     Defense Secretary Robert Gates

George W. Bush:  Federal Reserve Chair Benard Bernake

Barack Obama:    Federal Reserve Chair  Bernard Bernake

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I blame Barack Obama.

[New York Post]

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Andrew Sullivan

MEEP MEEP– December 23rd, 2009:

I will freely admit that I am in the tank for Barack Obama.  I believe his combination of pragmatism, measured cool, intelligence, and willingness to find the common ground–were exactly what this country needed after eight years of the Bush administration’s feckless policies, and unilateral bullishness.  I am not in the lot of folks who believe that 2009 has been a terrible first year for the new president.  This piece by Andrew Sullivan validates my thinking.  If you delve deeply into the muck and mire of combative partisan politics, you can extract some very important victories achieved by this administration.  One such example:

The substantive record is clear enough. Torture is ended, if Gitmo remains enormously difficult to close and rendition extremely hard to police. The unitary executive, claiming vast, dictatorial powers over American citizens, has been unwound. The legal inquiries that may well convict former Bush officials for war crimes are underway, and the trial of KSM will reveal the lawless sadism of the Cheney regime that did so much to sabotage our war on Jihadism. Military force against al Qaeda in Pakistan has been ratcheted up considerably, even at a civilian cost that remains morally troubling. The US has given notice that it intends to leave Afghanistan with a bang – a big surge, a shift in tactics, and a heavy batch of new troops. Iraq remains dodgy in the extreme, but at least March elections have been finally nailed down.

Example two:

Domestically, the new president has rescued the banks in a bail-out that has come in at $200 billion under budget; the economy has shifted from a tailspin to stablilization and some prospect of job growth next year; the Dow is at 10,500 a level no one would have predicted this time last year. A stimulus package has helped undergird infrastructure and probably did more to advance non-carbon energy than anything that might have emerged from Copenhagen. Universal health insurance (with promised deficit reduction!) is imminent – a goal sought by Democrats (and Nixon) for decades, impossible under the centrist Clinton, but won finally by a black liberal president…

Folks, we are on the precipice of MAJOR health care reform  This has NEVER been accomplished before.  Whether you agree or not with the president’s agenda, you must not discount what he has already achieved in his first year in office.

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Courtesy of the kooks at WorldNetDaily.  It is the holiday season right?  Surely they could find something good to say right?  Merry Christmas anyway kooks…er, I mean WND.

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Slightly amusing

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