When Obama says “the best anti-poverty measure is a world class education,” he knows that the Democrats are the party of NO. They say no to school vouchers, which would offer an opportunity for the children of the “rural areas to the inner cities” to pursue that education which has been denied them by failing public schools. They say NO to merit pay to reward good teachers and punish the bad ones.

More after the jump…

When Obama speaks of “strengthening our trading partners,” he must realize that the Democrats have been obstructionists to free trade, even recently spiking tariffs against China.

Obama insists that he will “not walk away from” healthcare. But, of course, Democrats have obstructed real reform that Republicans have offered yet again. Look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s bill, submitted to committee, which would help break down state-to-state barriers of purchase and even the playing field between employer health benefits with individual insurance. Check out his website explaining what may be the Republican plan of healthcare reform once we re-take the majority.

Lastly, when Obama spoke of his sharp pivot towards jobs, just remember, the industry that’s expanding fastest at the moment is the government. And a few others too:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=08w5J5cnacw

Now, let me get this straight…

We are going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes…

All to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?

~Anonymous

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejwYXpFjtd0

I remember a while back when Bush was snubbed a few handshakes from foreign dignitaries and it was a big deal. This video is awkward turtle times a thousand–I ascribe to “politics ends overseas,” so it makes me feel kind of annoyed that the US President was treated like this.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZXEShSIFks

I see SNL has finally rolled up its sleeves and has taken a serious jab at Obama. “I am noticing that each of your plans to save money involves spending even more money…”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMTPwAA5Pb8

Speaking of CPAC, conservative comedian P.J. O’Rourke gave a great speech at the convention back in 1995, I believe. This one is a gem and I hope we can see a speech half as good in February.

Replace “Clinton” with “Obama” and you have a great commentary on today’s outlook!

PelosiCare squeaks by the House by 5 votes–some majority, huh?

Pelosi in 2005: “Rascally Republicans rammed a 1000+ page bill through congress, overnight, without giving time for legislators to read it.” Gee…

Surprise, surprise: Chicago stimulus numbers a little fishy.

More stimulus jobs that don’t add up…

Pagan Republican wins NYC council seat in Tuesday’s election.

“It’s your deficits, Obama, so man up and stop the blame game.”

Hmmm: turns out hanged census worker was a suicide, not a victim of conservatives.

Palin vs. Bahney at the Gridiron Dinner this year.

Nice charts illustrating the White House’s totally-wrong unemployment predictions.

While Obama campaigned for unpopular loser Corzine, he ignores “marriage equalilty” vote in Maine.

A few days ago, President Obama released a memo regarding the federal enforcement of marijuana laws. Eight states, such as California, have legalized medicinal marijuana (such as for its use in dealing with the symptoms of chemotherapy for cancer patients). Medicinal marijuana is given out at dispensaries, which are legal according to state law.

However, the federal government still outlaws marijuana through the Controlled Substances Act. Therefore, federal agents have the legal authority to pursue marijuana as a controlled substance. However, they also have the discretion of applying their limited resources towards better objectives, which is what this shift seems to be based on.

As a campaign promise, Obama said he would end federal raids on state-legal marijuana dispensaries. This is an example of Obama’s actions finally coming in line with his rhetoric. If nothing else, a baby step in the right direction is better than a big step backwards. We can also soon expect an end to the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine penalties.

As an interesting note on the issue of states’ rights in the War on Drugs, the 2005 Supreme Court case Gonzalez v. Raich ruled that the federal government had the authority to regulate a person privately growing and consuming his own marijuana based on… wait for it… the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution! Clearly, private creation and consumption is basis for regulating trade between states.

Also to be noted that “liberal” justices Souter and Ginsberg ruled in favor of this ruling, and “arch-conservatives” Clarence Thomas and William Rehnquist dissented based on the obvious Constitutional meaning of the commerce clause.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=70lkobYY0Hc

This guy does a lot of interesting vizualizations of the size of the Federal budget and what Obama and Congress are doing. Check out his other videos.

Finch [from the audience]: How can we trust either of you with our money when both parties got — got us into this global economic crisis?

Obama: Well, look, I understand your frustration and your cynicism, because while you’ve been carrying out your responsibilities — most of the people here, you’ve got a family budget. If less money is coming in, you end up making cuts. Maybe you don’t go out to dinner as much. Maybe you put off buying a new car.

That’s not what happens in Washington. And you’re right. There is a lot of blame to go around.

But I think it’s important just to remember a little bit of history. When George Bush came into office, we had surpluses. And now we have half-a-trillion-dollar deficit annually.

When George Bush came into office, our debt — national debt was around $5 trillion. It’s now over $10 trillion. We’ve almost doubled it.

And so while it’s true that nobody’s completely innocent here, we have had over the last eight years the biggest increases in deficit spending and national debt in our history. And Sen. McCain voted for four out of five of those George Bush budgets…

_____

…what Obama is saying here is true. Like many things he said on the campaign trail, if only he genuinely meant what he had said (such as transparency issues), I would have a higher level of respect for his record so far in office. However, like so many things he criticized on the campaign trail, he would end up expanding or merely tweaking them: budget deficits, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential signing statements, the war on drugs, the war on terror… I’m not surprised SNL is already criticizing him from the left.

Chris Christie leads Corzine by 7 points in Rasmussen poll.

“HOV lanes are racist.”

Was the 1981 recession worse than today?

On the destructiveness of tariffs and taxes…

What WON’T a $20 bill get you? Esquire investigates…

Bill Clinton: “If Obama was white, there’d still be the same number of protesters.”

Change you can believe in–Obama keeps Bush’s “indefinite detention” powers.

$63k to charity for a dinner with Palin.

Speaking of, Sarahcuda hit one out of the park this week with her speech in Hong Kong–even the NYT gives it positive coverage. Snippets of her speech here.

In case you weren’t paying attention: Iran has a secret nuclear facility. Aaaand they’re test-firing missiles.