OBAMA: Seeking to justify military intervention, the president said the U.S. has “an important strategic interest in preventing Gadhafi from overrunning those who oppose him. A massacre would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya’s borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful — yet fragile — transitions in Egypt and Tunisia.” He added: “I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.”

THE FACTS: Obama did not wait to make that case to Congress, despite his past statements that presidents should get congressional authorization before taking the country to war, absent a threat to the nation that cannot wait.

 “The president does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” he told The Boston Globe in 2007 in his presidential campaign. “History has shown us time and again … that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the legislative branch.” 

Obama’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, said Sunday that the crisis in Libya “was not a vital national interest to the United States, but it was an interest.”

 OBAMA: “And tonight, I can report that we have stopped Gadhafi’s deadly advance.” 

THE FACTS: The weeklong international barrage has disabled Libya’s air defenses, communications networks and supply chains. But Gadhafi’s ground forces remain a potent threat to the rebels and civilians, according to U.S. military officials.

 Army Gen. Carter Ham, the top American officer overseeing the mission, told The New York Times on Monday that “the regime still overmatches opposition forces militarily. The regime possesses the capability to roll them back very quickly. Coalition air power is the major reason that has not happened.”

Only small numbers of Gadhafi’s troops have defected to the opposition, Ham said.

 At the Pentagon, Vice Adm. William Gortney, staff director for the Joint Chiefs, said the rebels are not well organized. “It is not a very robust organization,” he said. “So any gain that they make is tenuous based on that.”

 For the rest of the “Facts” please go here:

http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2146732&spid= 

Face Forward comments:

To know one’s surprise and after avoiding making a statement or explaining himself for weeks, Obama made his teleprompter guided speech to the American public last night. After hiding in Latin America, Obama returned to the states to declare that his undeclared war on Libya was justified. I will say this for him, while he continues to be the worst modern day president to ever be elected, he is one of the better liars. Had there not been access to the facts I would have turned off the television thinking, “we are so lucky to have him as our leader in this time of crisis”.

What I find particularly interesting about this fact check is that the article was on the WLS website. WLS is the BIG talk radio station in Chicago. If the voice of radio Chicago is reporting on Obama and his poor record of telling the truth, then his support base has really taken a hit.

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.

The word “crisis” in this country tends to be overworked these days, yet it’s hard to avoid using it when looking at the fiscal condition of state and local government. Unfunded pension and other liabilities for states and localities now exceed $3 trillion. More than 40 states are facing a combined budget shortfall of $125 billion for fiscal year 2012. Texas faces a projected $27 billion deficit over its coming two-year budget cycle. Labor costs are heavily driving this situation. According to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data, state and local government employees in 2010 on average received a total compensation of $39.60 an hour, compared to the private-sector full-time employee equivalent average of $27.42 an hour. Wages in the public sector were 35 percent higher and benefits were 69 percent higher. Public employees, moreover, enjoy greater security. From late 2007, when the latest recession began, through mid-2010, the private sector shed a net roughly 7 million jobs, while state and local governments added 110,000 jobs. Wisconsin mirrors the larger picture. The state faces a projected $3.6 billion budget gap over the next biennial cycle. And at present, it faces a $58 million shortfall in its Medicaid program even taking into account a $194 million federal contribution.

 Union leaders might not have a persuasive case, but they do have a persuasive ally in President Barack Obama. In a Wednesday sit-down White House interview with Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV, the president, parsing his words somewhat, stated: “Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions. I think everybody’s got to make some adjustments, but I think it’s also important to recognize that public employees make important contributions to our states and our citizens.” The White House is providing more than talk. The president’s political operation, Organizing for America, starting Monday made phone calls, distributed Twitter and Facebook messages, and sent e-mails via group lists, in an effort to build mass support for the unions. This campaign came on the heels of a speech by Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy Kaine exhorting Wisconsin union leaders.

If you wait long enough, the truth about unions always shows up

bargaining. The year 2009 represented a milestone. For the first time, union members in the public sector outnumbered those in the private sector, 7.9 million to 7.4 million. These figures represented 37.4 percent and 7.2 percent of their respective labor forces, falling somewhat in 2010 to 36.2 percent and 6.9 percent. Government employees, regardless of union density, have a natural incentive to behave politically, for it is through politics that they have obtained and expanded their sinecures. Enlarged government and enlarged union bargaining power go hand in hand. And governors and legislators typically have gone along with union demands, lest they be blamed for service shutdowns.

For this entire article please go here:

http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2011/02/20/union-bullies-shut-down-wisconsin-legislature-effort-block-fiscal-reform

Face Forward Comments:

Unions were created to protect people against big business. Does America really think that the State employees in WI need protection from the state? And to compare the teacher strike to the Egyptian pro democracy protest is just stupid. “Give me a $3 dollar perscription card or give me death” is not even close to reality.  Make sure to read the entire artice so you can see Michael Moore’s comments…… What a dufus!

CNN’s Candy Crowley was perpetuating one of the American media’s favorite myths about Barack Obama, that his mere election in 2008 had radically improved the United States’ image around the world after those disastrous eight years of Republican George W. Bush, whose policies and flunkies caused so many foreigners to really dislike the world’s sole remaining superpower.

Obama’s “supporters,” said Crowley, “say that in two years he has been able to return this country to a status of being liked across the world in a way that America was not liked during the Bush administration.

“That he has once again made America a beacon.”

The trouble for Crowley Sunday was that she was interviewing Donald Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld knows a little something about the world after being a military pilot, corporate executive, congressman, White House aide, Washington power-player and media adversary, as well as secretary of Defense during many of those Bush years.

“Do you agree with that?” she asked Rumsfeld with a straight face.

“Do you think that — that the U.S. is now looked at much differently than it was and much more positively than it was during your tenure?”

Referring to Obama, he told Crowley, “No. And I don’t think there’s data that supports that.

To the world, Obama is Uber Cool

“I think he has made a practice of trying to apologize for America. I personally am proud of America.”

For the rest of the interview and to see the comments of others on this article please follow this link.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/02/donald-rumsfeld-candy-crowley-cnn-obama-image-.html

Face Forward Comments:
What the article failed to mention is that Rumsfeld would have given her the truth, no matter the consequences.  Bush surrounded himself with tough men capable of making tough decisions.  I am not saying that everything they did was right or every word they spoke was the gospel truth.  But you never had to worry about them valuing another country over their own.

And finally to Ms. Crowley, I happen to agree with her assessment…….  Obama is much more popular all over the world than Bush ever was.  But then why shouldn’t he be?  He was born in Africa, Educated in Indonesia in Muslim schools, and supports a non-capitalistic, socialistic style of government.