President Obama laid out what he believes his administration has been doing to deal with the employment crisis in America thus far and hinted at forthcoming developments in his plan to create more jobs. During a press conference Thursday he tried to take some of the heat off his administration by stating, “Ultimately, true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector.”
In addition to all the other problematic things we might point out about President Obama’s West Point speech Tuesday night, there’s also the troubling, scheduling-related factoid that the broadcast of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was bumped out in favor of Obama’s highly anticipated Afghanistan oration.
“I overreacted,” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman admits to Jon Stewart about his initial support of the Iraq war in 2003 in this clip from Tuesday’s “Daily Show.” However, Friedman is still writing columns and selling books, such as his latest, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” so perhaps bad journalistic deeds still go unpunished in some media circles.
As usual, Glenn Beck exhibits an, um, unusual political sensibility in his analysis of Barack Obama’s West Point speech and the president’s plan to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. Luckily, Stephen Colbert is on hand to translate Beck’s logic puzzles with the help of his other favorite plastic friends, GI Joe and My Little Pony.
He took his time to mull it over, and in a speech at West Point on Tuesday night President Barack Obama announced his decision about what course of action to take in Afghanistan, affirming reports that he plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to push back on the resurgent Taliban and to try to establish some semblance of stability in the war-scarred country.
The Truthdig columnist, veteran war correspondent and author of “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” tells “On the Media” that when it comes to capturing war, “fiction is a better medium.”
Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee could be a contender in 2012, but he has discovered that rolling out of bed once a week to tell yuck-yucks and play bass on his Fox News show is a lot more fun than glad-handing and fundraising 18 hours a day.
On this Black Friday edition of “Left, Right & Center,” regulars Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Arianna Huffington get philosophical, trotting out the likes of Karl Marx and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to get a read on the timely and fundamental question of whether it’s truly possible to govern the people of the United States under the “of, by and for” setup.
On Wednesday, the 10th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the creation of a network of men tapped to serve as male role models in the fight against gender-based violence.
Strange but true: Even after leaving office this summer well before her term as Alaska’s governor was over, Sarah Palin’s “executive experience” still strikes Mike Huckabee as valid evidence of leadership that would put her above Barack Obama in the former Arkansas governor’s estimation, were he to be faced with those two choices at the polls.
Other market sectors are another story, and this story may also change in coming months, but let’s have some good news about the residential real estate market, shall we? Right: The Associated Press is reporting that home sales rose more than 10 percent in October from their September levels, largely due to tax incentives, and November may continue along this trend.
At long last, it seems that members of Congress, of left- and right-leaning persuasions alike, are harboring serious doubts about a couple of key players on President Barack Obama’s economic task force. The right-leaning Tony Blankley thinks that this signals the cyclical, and helpful, breakdown of hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, Robert Scheer thinks Sarah Palin is still scary.
Is yet another Christmas album from a recording artist who just might be phoning it in really necessary? Bob Dylan apparently thought so. He’s released his own holiday collection, “Christmas in the Heart,” from which this odd little polka number—and its even stranger accompanying video—has sprung.
Chris Hedges, George Packer and Sam Tanenhaus mix it up on this Miami Book Fair panel about the fascinating times in which we live. Don’t miss Hedges take on the charge that his lingo is limited to the Harvard set.
Lawrence Summers’ derivative bets may have cost Harvard $11 billion, but we didn’t see this coming. America’s premier training ground for millionaires and unabombers has resorted to late night infomercials. Ever consider a career in bonuses? Act now!
Why wait for Sunday to practice your best bell-ringing, genuflecting and incense-swinging moves when you can bring the blessings home with the “Mass: We Pray” video game? Bonus: You can trade in Grace points to unlock the Holy Mysteries!
In these clips from Vice President Joe Biden’s visit Tuesday to “The Daily Show,” the nation’s No. 2 takes stock of the Obama administration’s first year in office, defends his boss’ decisions on a couple contentious issues, and compares Wall Street honchos to rattlesnakes.
Capt. Kirk is climbing a mountain. Why? “Because I’m in love.” There isn’t much to say about this inexplicable display of environmental arousal except this: If Bill Shatner loves the environment, so should you.
The president’s political organization held a health reform video challenge that brought in more than 1,000 entries. The winner is pretty effective, but it’s also pretty familiar.
President Barack Obama clearly brought great shame upon his nation by taking a deep bow from the waist during his recent visit to Japan. This ill-conceived gesture undoubtedly revealed that he’s weaker than Karl Rove’s chin—and that was even before he got to China.
The new “Call of Duty” video game took in a cool $310 million on the day it launched, thanks partly to “heart-racing action,” as the developer put it. According to the satire masters at the Onion, the next version—yawn—is already in the works.
Does the planned trial of the five alleged 9/11 plotters (including oft-referenced “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) represent a partisan issue? “Left, Right & Center” mainstay Tony Blankley thinks so, but his left-leaning counterpart, Robert Scheer, begs to differ on this week’s show. Also: What’s with all the deliberation about Afghanistan?
Having caught wind that Fox Newser Sean Hannity was going to take a moment on his show to issue an apology to Jon Stewart for using older tea-party rally footage in a recent story, the host of “The Daily Show” was looking forward to hearing an admission of how the Fox folks subscribe to the network’s methodology, aka “the subtle altering of reality to sell a preconceived narrative.” That didn’t quite happen.
The twisted minds behind “South Park” have taken notice of the Glenn Beck style of casting doubt and judgment on certain prominent public leaders via guilt-by-association word games, and now Cartman’s taking a page from Beck’s playbook. Is any American elementary school really safe from the scourge of socialism?
Why Obama’s Strategy Won’t Succeed
