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[News] The stunning decline of Barack Obama: 10 key reasons why the Obama ...: Growing disillusionment with the Obama administration’s handling of the economy as well as health care and immigration has gone hand in hand with mounting unhappiness with the President’s aloof and imperial style of leadership, and a growing perception that he is out of touch with ordinary Americans, especially at a time of significant economic pain. Barack Obama’s striking absence of natural leadership ability (and blatant lack of experience) has played a big part in undermining his credibility with the US public, with his lacklustre handling of the Gulf oil spill coming under particularly intense fire.

[RUTHFULLY YOURS] THE STUNNING DECLINE OF OBAMA: NILE GARDNER | RUTHFULLY YOURS: While much of Europe, led by Britain and Germany, are aggressively cutting their deficits, the Obama administration is actively growing America's debt, and has no plan in place to avert a looming Greek-style financial crisis. From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the War on Terror, President Obama's leadership has often been muddled and confused.

[Foreign Policy] Resetting Georgia - by Brian Whitmore | Foreign Policy: For us, Georgians , independence from Russia is not only, waiving our national flag or speaking Georgian language or participating in different competitions as a sovereign country. Independence from Russia means that we never go back to that old communist type regime were everything stinks with corruption, were businesses still pay to criminal authorities, were journalists get killed for opposing state, were police is more corrupt then any other government agency, were young generation and new ideas are suppressed in fear that change can harm the interests of many.

[Firedoglake] The War on Public Employees | FDL News Desk: My comments (as an actuary under the State Actuary) to the Commonwealth of Mass back in 74 on the extreme cost to come from early retirement to employees not associated with police and fire, and from final salary games in police and fire, was ignore with one state legislator stating we never worried about cost before in granting pensions so it was unfair to worry about cost in the bill at hand.

[Swampland] Bushwhackoed - Swampland - TIME.com: Bush's enraptured deputy propaganda minister Pete Wehner took a whack at me for writing a column about the obscene waste of the Iraq war. And sure enough, the pious janissary has come through on schedule...and for the umpteenth time he resurrects something I said on Face the Nation that seems favorable toward the President's macho aircraft carrier stroll:

[Open Left - Front Page] Open Left:: The big picture behind the Wikileaks Afghan War Diary: We didn't stop the invasion from happening or change many minds at all about the Afghanistan conflict. But as the war grinds on after 9 years, .

[Foreign Policy] Afghans Can Win This War - By Yahya Massoud | Foreign Policy: Its also worth noting that Taliban aren't exactly medivac-ing civilians so much as, say, shooting pregnant women for being unmarried. This is no excuse, obviously, for coalition-caused injuries to civilians, but one should remember who it is we are fighting and that we don't take hurting people indiscriminately lightly.

[Ignorance Is Futile!] *The Global Meltdown of FEAR: Eliminated by 60+ visual aids ...: Consider that the U.S. has over 700 military bases in over 60 foreign nations (not counting Iraq & Afghanistan). Factoring the budgets of those host nations means a daunting global military infrastructure, which these days is supposedly .

[Political Animal] Boehner, Pence signal a new debate on tax - The Washington Monthly: the near pathological GOP-Corporatist rebuttal against the science of Global Warming [for the protection of petro-wealth], vehement assertions that tax cuts for the extremely wealthy are imperative to saving the economy [despite all evidence to the contrary], the ravenous fracturing of public opinion in the U.S. [to prevent voter revolt], and the creation of a near-perfect private military for hire [Blackwater/Xe] — and you look at it all through the most cynical lens possible [with the aid of a robust Heffeweisen] it spells disaster for the masses and a filthy rich ruling class."

[WORLDmag.com | Community] WORLDmag.com | Community | Blog Archive | A clear and present danger: Iran was behind the bombing on the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983 which slaughtered hundreds of American soldiers in their beds, as well as the suicide/homicide truck bomb attack on U.S. Marines at Beirut airport that same year. Here are some more examples of Iranian backed terror in past years:

[Affaires étrangères] The ISI made a bet, and it won « Affaires étrangères: His sympathy, and that of many of his ISI colleagues, for the Taliban stems from the years they spent in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan together, helping the Taliban create their Islamic Emirate, and at the same time, helping Pakistan gain “strategic depth”–which is Pakistani military lexicon for a friendly government in Afghanistan that would, during a war with India, allow Pakistan to regroup on Afghan soil.

[Gold Speculator] Iran War Even Closer?.. Trade Wars Final Nail in Coffin - Gold ...: The Times article has one (cynical) answer, as follows: "The temptation for President Obama to double down on Iran will grow rapidly as he concludes that Afghanistan will remain a festering sore as far as anyone can peer into a murky future, hardly a recipe for success at the polls in November. With a war in Afghanistan, which is bound to get worse, and a military theater in Iraq replete with sectarian violence, the bombing of Iran may give Mr.

[Awards Daily's Oscar Countdown] Awards Daily's Oscar Countdown--Watching Oscar 24/7 » Blog Archive ...: Like I knew there would be a Slumdog sweep last year, I knew Slumdog would win Best Picture, I knew Danny Boyle would win Best Director, I knew Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke would win Best Actor, I knew Kate Winslet would win her overdue Oscar for leading actress, EVERYONE knew Heath Ledger would win Best Supporting Actor, and I knew Penelope Cruz would end up winning supporting actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona due to Winslet being placed in the leading category for The Reader. Hopefully this year will be an overall better year for film and that awards season won’t be so predictable.

[The Becker-Posner Blog] The Looming Entitlement Fiscal Burden-Becker - The Becker-Posner Blog: achieving the good, I think the case can be made that they fail on this score as well as violating the principles of right that Locke articulated should be the foundation of law. As economist Mancur Olson has argued in his *The Rise and Decline of Nations,* democracies that have been freed from constraints imposed by the demands of justice (such as self-ownership and the right to acquire property) to collectively pursue a vision of the good (such as greater economic security in old age or wider availability of health care) over time devolve into a system dominated by interest groups which favor redistributional policies that destroy the productive capacities of a nation.

[POLITICO Top Stories] House takes hard line on Humvees - Jen DiMascio - POLITICO.com: between Humvee production and the competition for the tactical vehicle program, said spokeswoman Celeste Ross. “However, AM General’s considerable experience in manufacturing and supporting light tactical vehicles is one of the strengths”

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