Across the nation many Progressives have been disillusioned with the leadership shown by President Obama on Healthcare. As a former single-payer proponent himself we simply hoped that he would fight harder for a better bill. Instead, he allowed the Congress to mostly write the healthcare bill and far from gave a ringing endorsement to a more Progressive direction. Many of us also feel this timidness also lost the momentum in a critical time for the debate.

George W. Bush, in the duplicitous run-up to the invasion of Iraq, insulated himself, closed his mind and refused to meet with civic associations in his own land. Like an autocrat bent on plunging a country into war and occupation, knowingly on false pretenses, he deliberately deprived himself of the information that might have restrained his disastrous, messianic militarism. Disastrous, not to him and Dick Cheney, but to our country, soldiers, and economy, and to the devastated Iraqi people and their ravaged nation. -- Who would have thought last year that on assuming the presidency, that you would consider plunging deeper in to this quagmire without an exit strategy? - The deeper you plunge, the greater your rejection of the history of occupations fueling insurgencies in that region. --- The more you insulate yourself from contrary judgments to those you have been receiving from your inner councils. Our country, its people and innocent Afghan people will pay the price. -- George W. Bush, in the duplicitous run-up to the invasion of Iraq, insulated himself, closed his mind and refused to meet with civic associations in his own land. Like an autocrat bent on plunging a country into war and occupation, knowingly on false pretenses, he deliberately deprived himself of the information that might have restrained his disastrous, messianic militarism. Disastrous, not to him and Dick Cheney, but to our country, soldiers, and economy, and to the devastated Iraqi people and their ravaged nation. -- Who would have thought last year that on assuming the presidency, that you would consider plunging deeper in to this quagmire without an exit strategy? - The deeper you plunge, the greater your rejection of the history of occupations fueling insurgencies in that region. --- The more you insulate yourself from contrary judgments to those you have been receiving from your inner councils. Our country, its people and innocent Afghan people will pay the price. -- You owe the American people an un-Bush-like explanation. - Why are you not receiving these groups of American from varied backgrounds and experience at the White House on this pending Afghan decision? - They may wonder, by contrast, why you have so many White House meetings with major corporate CEOs from Wall Street, from the health insurance companies and the drug companies. - Is not the White House the peoples' House? - Along with many other citizens in our country, I look forward to your response.

Barack Obama has nominated the former President George Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, for a spot on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The BBG oversees the US government-sponsored international broadcasting. "I'm honored by the president's announcement and I'm looking forward to serving on the bipartisan board, if I'm confirmed," Perino said after she was tapped for the key job late on Wednesday by the US president, reported AFP. Established in 1994, the BBG oversees all of the US government's non-military international broadcasting outlets, including Voice of America, Alhurra television, Radio Sawa, TV Marti, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe. Politically conservative Perino is presently a Fox News contributor and holds a job, as a counselor, for the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. Perino and other nominees need the Senate approval to be formally appointed to the top job. [Note: I am having deja vu.]

President Obama says he wants to "rebalance" the economic relationship between China and the U.S. as part of his plan to restart the American jobs machine. "We cannot go back," he said in September, "to an era where the Chinese . . . just are selling everything to us, we're taking out a bunch of credit-card debt or home equity loans, but we're not selling anything to them." He hopes that hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers will make up for the inability of American consumers to return to debt-binge spending. This is wishful thinking. True, the Chinese market is huge and growing fast. By 2009, China was second only to the U.S. in computer sales, with a larger proportion of first-time buyers. It already had more cell-phone users. And excluding SUVs, last year Chinese consumers bought as many cars as Americans (as recently as 2006, Americans bought twice as many). Even as the U.S. government was bailing out General Motors and Chrysler, the two firms' sales in China were soaring; GM's sales there are almost 50% higher this year than last. Proctor & Gamble is so well-established in China that many Chinese think its products (such as green-tea-flavored Crest toothpaste) are Chinese brands.

As long as our goals in Afghanistan remain as elusive as they are now, Obama shouldn't be sending troops. He should be bringing them out.

"Mr. Obama announced this week that he would convene a jobs summit at the White House next month to explore ways of putting Americans back to work. It remains to be seen whether the summit will yield anything substantial. But it’s fair to wonder why the president and his party have not been focused like fanatics on job creation from the first day he took office."

We supported your candidacy because we viewed you as the best chance for ending the wars of the Bush era. We applauded your rejection of the rhetoric of fear and division that was the stock in trade of Bush and Cheney. -- We are alarmed by the way that rhetoric has crept into your public pronouncements since your August address in Phoenix. -- Your decision on Afghanistan will represent the decisive turning point of your presidency. - If you turn away from war, you will provide a profile in courage that will solidify your support and open up a new perspective for progressive reforms in our country. You will honor the spirit of John F. Kennedy, who was searching for an exit strategy from the Vietnam war. - If you opt for a wider war, the resulting heavy casualties will destroy confidence in your leadership among your own most devoted advocates. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be poured down a rat hole, and will no longer be available for any reform and renovation of American society, which will increasingly fall behind the economic strength of other countries. Your domestic agenda will be halted, in the same way your predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson was crippled by the Vietnam war. Escalation of the Afghan war, in short, would be an act of political suicide for you, and of national suicide for our country. --- We are keenly aware of the difficulties and animosities you face, and we have long done everything possible to give your administration the benefit of the doubt, even in the face of repeated disappointments. -- But we now approach the moment of truth: will you be a great progressive president, or will you prove too weak to turn away from the bankrupt policies institutionalized and entrenched under Bush and Cheney.

"Job creation has dropped from top priority to one of many, and President Obama has been remanded to pandering for patience and offering excuses. On the one hand, he argues the tortured rationale that there is good news in the awful numbers: Things are still getting worse but at a slower pace. On the other, he incessantly reminds us that he inherited the crisis. The implication: Don’t blame me, blame Bush. But this president can’t keep deflecting to the last one. Pain is presently felt. The crisis that took form on Bush’s watch is being experienced on Obama’s. Fair or not, finger-pointing is not effective policy."

"....And now is his best-ever chance to pull out, because the political train wreck in Kabul gives him an ideal opportunity to renege on his foolish promises to pursue the war in Afghanistan until victory. If he misses this opportunity, he may never get another, for it will inevitably and inexorably become ``his" war, and the Americans who are killed there from now on will have died on his orders. Once that kind of burden descends on a politician, it becomes almost impossible for him to change course and admit that those deaths were futile. In that case, the Afghanistan war will eventually destroy him."

I voted for Obama, defended him from the snarks of my Hillary-supporting friends, and maxed out my contribution. In Indianapolis, I walked down dim halls that smelled of vomit and urine begging sick old people to vote. But his acceptance of the Nobel Prize has turned me off worse than a garlic-breath kiss. I don’t care that he doesn’t deserve it. He didn’t “deserve” to be President either. (Who does?) I mind that he’s letting himself be used to bad purpose. As Meatloaf sang, “I will do anything for love, but I won’t do that.”

ABC Series 'V': Invading, Fascist Lizards Arrive With 'Universal Health Care' and 'Message of Hope' --ABC Network Portrays Aliens, Hell-bent on Destroying Planet Earth, as the Obama Administration By Lori Price 04 Nov 2009 The ABC television network has brought back the science fiction series, 'V,' in a remake of the 1980's classic by the same name... During the interview, interspersed with scenes from a meeting of a nascent resistance movement, Anna, the Visitor's leader, announces that the Visitors are going to open medical clinics all over the country, as a gift to mankind. The interviewer actually asks, 'Oh, do you mean like universal health care?' And Anna, the scourge of mankind, replies, 'Yes, I believe that is what your people call it.' The implication by the ABC producers of V: An alien lizard fascist, trying to take control of earth and who must be destroyed at any cost, will provide universal health care as a cover to control all earthlings and take over the planet.

President Obama on Friday announced the end of a 22-year ban on travel to the United States by people who had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, fulfilling a promise he made to gay advocates and acting to eliminate a restriction he said was “rooted in fear rather than fact.”

"I don't want to just end the [Iraq] war, but I want to end the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." - Presidential candidate Barack Obama, January 31, 2008; - “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.” - Theodore Roosevelt (1882-1945), 26th US president; - “If we are strong, our character will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.” - John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th US President; - “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.” - Noam Chomsky, linguist and political analyst. --- --- All and all, and where it counts the most, in matters of wars and peace and in economic matters, things have hardly changed under the new Obama administration. - It is likely that an even more pugnacious McCain administration would have been worse, considering Sen. McCain's public declarations and pronouncements. - Nevertheless, this is poor consolation to those who had high expectations and who were led to believe that President Obama's election would really bring fundamental change.

"Suppose President Obama and his aides had decided to take on the worst offender among the big insurance companies this fall. ~~~~~ Unfortunately, the Obama administration has not chosen to wage a fight that might matter. Rather, the president's aides continue to wrangle with Fox News, griping about the network's Republican-friendly reporting and commentary. MoveOn is urging members of Congress to join in the charade."

Criminalizing cancer and AIDS patients for using a substance that is (a) prescribed by their doctors and (b) legal under the laws of their state has always been abominable. The Obama administration deserves major credit not only for ceasing this practice, but for memorializing it formally in writing. Just as is true for Jim Webb's brave crusade to radically revise the nation's criminal justice and drug laws, there is little political gain -- and some political risk -- in adopting a policy that can be depicted as "soft on drugs" or even "pro-marijuana." It's a change that has concrete benefits for many people who are sick and for those who provide them with treatments that benefit them. So credit where it's due to the Obama DOJ, for fulfilling a long-standing commitment on this issue.

"The White House expressed its frustration with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, for stalling over an election run-off yesterday, linking the political crisis for the first time to a decision on sending extra US troops to the country. Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the US administration could not make a decision about a request for 40,000 extra troops without a credible government in place in Kabul."

FIRST, “Saturday Night Live” parodies President Obama’s “achievements.” Then Mr. Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize, bringing yet more head-scratching. The president’s critics complain that his only real accomplishment is the $787 billion stimulus bill. But is that all there is? I think not. STOPPING THE SLIDE -- The administration’s chief accomplishment to date surely is devising and executing a comprehensive program to pull us back from the abyss. The stimulus was just one component. ENACTING THE STIMULUS PACKAGE -- speed of enactment merits substantial weight in the overall grade. By that standard, the stimulus package scores well — Give it a B or B+. RESCUING THE BANKS -- Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, opt[ed] for the high-risk “stress tests” of 19 big financial institutions. Today, all 19 are alive and breathing. So give the bank rescue plan an A–. REDUCING FORECLOSURES Mr. Obama’s efforts to mitigate foreclosures have been more modest — and less successful. Give them a C. TRYING FOR REGULATORY REFORM -- At this point, we can’t even guess what may pass. So give this policy an “incomplete,” On balance, then, this assessment leads to a Nobel-like verdict in the areas of financial regulation, health care and energy: the ideas have great merit, but any real achievements are hopes for the future. Yet on the crucial macroeconomic and banking issues, we must conclude that “Saturday Night Live” got it quite wrong: Mr. Obama’s accomplishments in just nine months are palpable and were very much needed. If he seems to have achieved little, it’s partly because he set out to do too much.

"When, Mr. President? When will your deeds catch up to your words? The people who worked tirelessly to get you elected are getting tired of waiting.~~~~~~~~~~~The fierce urgency of now has melted into the maddening wait for whenever."

"President Obama mounted a frontal assault on the insurance industry on Saturday, accusing it of airing 'deceptive and dishonest ads' to derail his health care legislation and threatening to strip the industry of its longstanding exemption from federal anti-trust laws."

....a report on BBC's Newsnight in the UK that aired Wednesday said the Obama administration has already made the decision to send 45,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which would amount to 5,000 more than Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of forces in Afghanistan, has reportedly asked for.