It all seems rather mad, doesn’t it? The decision to become involved militarily in the Libyan civil war couldn’t take place within a less hospitable context. The U.S. is reeling from spending and deficits, we’re already in two wars, our military has been stretched to the limit, we’re restive at home, and no one, really, sees President Obama as the kind of leader you’d follow over the top. “This way, men!” “No, I think I’ll stay in my trench.” People didn’t hire him to start battles but to end them. They didn’t expect him to open new fronts. Did he not know this?

He has no happy experience as a rallier of public opinion and a leader of great endeavors; the central initiative of his presidency, the one that gave shape to his leadership, health care, is still unpopular and the cause of continued agitation. When he devoted his entire first year to it, he seemed off point and out of touch. This was followed by the BP oil spill, which made him look snakebit. Now he seems incompetent and out of his depth in foreign and military affairs. He is more observed than followed, or perhaps I should say you follow him with your eyes and not your heart. So it’s funny he’d feel free to launch and lead a war, which is what this confused and uncertain military action may become.

What was he thinking? What is he thinking?

For the rest of the insightful article please follow this link

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704604704576221142167651286.html

Face Fwd Comments:

In several liberal blogs I read, they were asking the question, “Why is the Tea Party so silent on Libya”? My guess is because we (A Tea Party Member) really don’t know what Obama is doing. We are finding out second hand that we are bombing Libya But we are really not sure what the desired out come of our attack is. Where is Obama and why isn’t he addressing the nation telling us what it is he has our military doing?

I can tell you that from this Tea Party members perspective, “Get the Heck out of Libya and the rest of the middle east. Take that money and protect our own borders. Stop propping up enemies of our enemies because it does not work. And for Pete’s sake, stop fighting other countries civil wars.

Okay liberals. Now you have heard it from the Tea Party. We are against this attack and this “soon to be” war. Get our troops home and let’s stop playing world police.

Mr. Obama, now that you have heard from the Tea Party it would be nice if you told us how you felt.

WASHINGTON The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $447 billion bill that boosts funding for large swaths of the U.S. government and reflects the priorities of Democrats who control Congress and the White House.

The House approved the spending bill by a vote of 221 to 202 and sent it to the Senate, which must pass it by December 18 or extend a temporary measure to keep the government running.

No Republicans voted for the bill.

The bill funds dozens of government agencies and boosts spending for the priorities of President Barack Obama’s administration, such as building high-speed rail and beefing up oversight of financial markets.

It would boost lending programs for small businesses, which the administration has identified as a way to bring down the nation’s 10 percent unemployment rate, and allow auto dealerships that have been cut loose by General Motors and Chrysler to appeal the decision.

The bill also advances liberal social policies, reversing restrictions put in place by former President George W. Bush and his Republican allies.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.

Despite Republican criticism concerning record federal deficits, Obama said the U.S. has had to “spend our way out of this recession” with so many people out of work but insisted he was still mindful of a need to confront soaring deficits. More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, statistics Obama called “staggering.”

Congressional approval would be required for the new spending.

“We avoided the depression many feared,” Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But he added, “Our work is far from done.”

It was the third time in a week the president had presided over a high-profile event on jobs, responding to rising pleas in Congress that he spend more time discussing unemployment as midterm election season draws near.

Obama proposed new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. He said he wanted to extend economic stimulus programs to keep unemployment insurance from expiring for millions of out-of-work Americans and to help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. He proposed an additional $250 apiece in stimulus spending for seniors and veterans and aid to state and local governments to discourage them from laying off teachers, police officers and firefighters.

On Capitol Hill, estimates of a potential jobs bill range from $75 billion to $150 billion, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.

For the rest of this article please go here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_jobs

Face Forward Comments:

It defies all logic.  Other than creating another slush fund for the Democrats to run their pet projects out of, another “Stimulus Package” makes no sense.  Every lawmaker in America took heat from the “tax payers”over the first package.  It was in large part what kicked off the tea parties.  This is just another example of the government not listening to the people that are paying the bill.

Everyone has heard about the jobs saved or created that weren’t not really there.  One of the more famous ones was the Georgia district that claimed (in support of Obama) that it has saved 9 out of 5 jobs.  I guess they forgot to save the math teacher’s job.  So far, the cost of creating a single job is running about $250,000.

The Obama administration has spent around $217 billion of the stimulus funds.  The Republican party, which opposes another stimulus package, points out some of the wasteful pet project that have been funded by the Democratic controlled administration.  The money is still being accounted for but it looks like pure waste could run as high as 25%.  If you add the mismanagement and overspending on needed projects, the waste could run as high as 50 percent.

Here are just a few the more blatantly stupid projects uncovered

$5 million grant from the Department of Energy to create a geothermal energy system for the EMPTY Oak Ridge City Center shopping mall in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Penn State University received $1.57 million to search for fossils in Argentina

A liberal-leaning theater in Minnesota, In the Heart of the Beast, named after a famous quote by communist leader Che Guevara, received $100,000 for socially conscious puppet shows.

$6 million that went to the New York advertising firm Young & Republican to advertise the transition from analog to digital television. GOP lawmakers criticized the project for only creating three jobs.

$4.7 million that Lockheed Martin received to conduct advance research of supersonic jet travel

$2 million in stimulus funds that went to pay for new pipes to pump recycled water to the Sharp Park Golf Course, which the San Francisco City Council considered closing because of the threat it posed to the California red-legged frog.

$2 million in stimulus money went to build a replica railroad as a tourist attraction in Carson City, Nev.

 A dinner cruise company based in Chicago received nearly $1 million in funds to combat terrorism.

 Half a million dollars went to Arizona State University to study the genetic makeup of ants to determine distinctive roles in ant colonies;

$450,000 went to the University of Arizona to study the division of labor in ant colonies.

The State University of New York at Buffalo won $390,000 to study young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke marijuana.

The National Institutes of Health got $219,000 in funds to study whether female college students are more likely to “hook up” after drinking alcohol.

 The University of Hawaii collected $210,000 to study the learning patterns of honeybees

$700,000 went to help crab fishermen in Oregon recover lost crab pots.

If the government wants to create real jobs in America, it’s simple.  Do whatever it takes to get our manufacturing sector back, let us drill for oil and gas on our own lands, build nuclear plants and stop trying to hand over our sovereignty to the UN through the ridiculous cap and trade taxes that are being proposed.

In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.

Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.

But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.

Activists predict a wave that could roll from California to Kentucky to New Hampshire and that could leave even some GOP incumbents — Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is one — facing unexpectedly fierce challenges from their right flank.

“I would say it’s the tip of the spear,” said Dick Armey, the former GOP House majority leader who now serves as chairman of FreedomWorks, an organization that has been closely aligned with the tea party movement. “We are the biggest source of energy in American politics today.”

“What you’re going to see,” said Armey, “is moderates and conservatives across the country in primaries.”

These high-stakes primaries, pitting the activist wing of the party against the establishment wing, stand to have a profound impact on the 2010 election landscape since they will create significant problems for moderate candidates recruited by the national party precisely because they appear well-suited to win in places that are not easily — or even plausibly — won by conservative candidates.

The tensions between the two visions threaten to limit the party’s gains in an election year that is shaping up in its favor.

Party strategists worry that well-funded, well-organized challenges from the right could force Republicans to exhaust precious resources on messy primary fights — or force moderate candidates to adopt more strident positions early on that could haunt them during the final months of the campaign.

For the rest of this story please go here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/29057