AntiBVBL

Huffington Post:

On Wednesday, former presidential candidate and Fox host Mike Huckabee pushed back at conservative bloggers who were “uncivil” about his recent decision to bring First Lady Michelle Obama onto his show to talk about her campaign to fight child obesity.

Huckabee’s show was the first lady’s debut appearance on Fox News, and there was considerable push back from viewers. “Some bloggers, it seemed, wanted me to bring her on my show only if I yelled at her. Or it seemed they wanted me to hit her,” Huckabee told a crowd in Wichita, Kansas.

The Wichita Eagle reports:

[Huckabee] said he disagrees with nearly every policy position of her husband, but that attacking people doesn’t accomplish anything. The viciousness of attacks from all sides, he said, are “disgusting … the anger and the meanness.”

Mediaite reports that Michelle Obama’s appearance on Huckabee gave the show its lowest ratings of 2010.

I like to bring Mike Huckabee out as a shining star every once in a while.  Huckabee respresents a decency I like.  Could I probably vote for him?  No.  He is far too conservative politically for me.   But I can like him.  Like goes a long way.   When I feel like I am getting too partisan (and Marshall-gate has made me feel that way.) the decency of Mike Huckabee restores my sense of equilibrium. 

Mr. Huckabee loves music and his band, the Little Rockers do a good job of highlighting artists who are not the stars of today.  The Little Rockers are building employees at Fox News.

We need more Mike Huckabees who always represent civility in politics. In many ways, Huckabee admonishes us all as bloggers also. As we sit behind our computer screens, would we say some of the things that come out of the ends of our fingers to a person’s face?  On Anti-bvbl, probably 95% of the time, yes.  Those who virulently attack others usually don’t make it ‘out on the floor’ of this blog.  However, not all blogs can make that claim.     Mike Huckabee is a standard we all can admire whether we agree with his politics or not.  Mike Huckabee is a gentleman.

President Obama pretty much says it all at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. We cannot all be so stuck in our own idealogy or the idealogy of our parties. Sometimes we must step outside our comfort zone.  Sometimes we must agree to disagree without being disagreeable. 

This speech has been called historic by people not necessarily in the Obama camp.  I believe the looked at the speech as American rather than Democratic.  So much acclaim has been given to this speech, I decided to post it in its entirety.  It is approximately 4000 words long, twice as long as his inaugural speech. 

Part 1

Read more…

This morning, just before 6 am our time, President Barack Obama received and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Many people, probably including the president himself, were caught off-guard over when this award was announced last summer. President Obama had not been in office all that long.

How can this award be anything but good for the United States? A sitting president awarded the Nobel Peace Prize can only signal that the United States is a world leader whether in war or peace. It gives us stature. It de-fangs some of our aggression that we have had to exhibit because we are a world leader. We are obviously still at war and in 2 regions. Our resolve has been strengthened in Afghanistan.

The President was spoke well for the nation in his acceptances of this prestigious award:

Full text of President Obama’s Speech

This award is seen by some as somewhat duplicitous since President Obama has recently announced that 30,000 new troops will immediately be deployed to Afghanistan. Keeping the peace isn’t always free or without strife. World opinion as well as US opinion on this issue is dominating the news and blogs. Is it possible to deploy troops and be considered a man of peace? How can we reconcile these 2 opposite concepts?

Two new spokes-characters for the White House will be Elmo and Big Bird.  These two along with thousands of scientists and video game programmers will be recruited to help improve math and science education in middle school and high school.

President Obama will announce this new initiative  called Educate to Innovateon Monday.  Discovery Communications, Sesame Street, Sally Ride, various CEOs will all be involved.  The initiative is a partnership with foundations and industry.  This is going to be big and will certainly rival the push in math and science back in the early 60s which was a response to Sputnik. 

Full Story New York Times

As the Senate Finance Committee passed a $829 Billion bill that reshapes the health care system today, sides squared off for the  mother-lode of battles: The White House vs The Health Care Insurance Lobby.

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) was the lone Republican to cast her vote in favor of this reform.

According to the Washington Post:

…[A]ttacks on the leading Democratic reform plan this week by the insurance lobby left little doubt that two of the most powerful institutions involved in the debate — the White House and the nation’s insurance companies — have abandoned any real hope of forging a compromise. What was a tenuous truce has turned quickly into an all-out battle, with both sides ratcheting up the hostilities.

As the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved a 10-year, $829 billion bill to remake the health-care system, Obama’s top advisers and the insurers moved into a more intense stage of conflict.

“The insurance industry has decided to lead the charge against health reform, and everyone recognizes their motives: profits,” said White House deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer. “We are going to make sure they can’t sink this effort at the last minute.”

After watching all those commercials intended to scare the crap out of people, after listening to all those tea party people, after listening so many say that we have the best health system in the world, one has ask themself:  Why are we letting the people who have been cheating us and robbing us blind all these years dictate national policy?

Full Story in Washington Post

General Stanley McCrystal has asked for additonal troops in Afghanistan. It was his opinion:

that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan “will likely result in failure” without an urgent infusion of troops has been endorsed by the uniformed leadership. That includes Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command and architect of the troop “surge” strategy widely seen as helping U.S. forces turn the corner in Iraq.

Meanwhile, President Obama has said that the administration needs time to assess the situation and look again at options and objectives. According to the Washington Post,

Obama’s public remarks on Afghanistan indicate that he has begun to rethink the counterinsurgency strategy he set in motion six months ago, even as his generals have embraced it. The equation on the ground has changed markedly since his March announcement, with attacks by Taliban fighters showing greater sophistication, U.S. casualties rising, and the chances increasing that Afghanistan will be left with an illegitimate government after widespread fraud in recent presidential elections.

Should we risk getting bogged down even further in the war in Afghanistan by sending in more troops? Is it possible to win in Afghanistan? Must we get Bin Lauden to be successful? What would really denote ‘winning?’ Should the Taliban be totally removed?

The Afghanistan government seems corrupt and the elections were questionable. Must the Afghanistan governement be stable? Must the Afghanistan army be able to defend the country before we go? Have there been efforts to make this happen?

The drug situation is still deplorable. The Taliban almost eradicated poppy growing in 2001. Now they do not seem to be quite the intense opponents of the poppy industry as they used to be. This past year was a bumper crop. Much of the world’s opium comes from this area of the world. Can we turn our backs on this cash crop?

Politically speaking, will President Obama lose his liberal support if he continues the war in Afghanistan? Did he make promises about the Afghanistan front or did he mainly speak about the Iraqi war? What does American stand to gain or lose by either action?

Reprint of The Pointlessness of the Racism Debate by Lincoln Mitchell
Huffington Post

The question of whether or not some of the attacks on President Obama are racist is not likely to end anytime soon. There is little that can be done to persuade some supporters of President Obama that comparing the African American president to a witch doctor is not racist, or that the disrespect shown to Obama during his address to congress on health care would not have been on display if the president had been white. Similarly, critics of the president will continue to insist that this is simply all about the issues and that race has nothing to do with it.

Part of the difficulty is that on issues of race, there is a deep, but usually unspoken disagreement which runs through most of America. A substantial proportion of Americans see racism as something that is firmly in the past. This originates both from justifiable pride in how far we have come in this area, but unfortunately also prevents many people from recognizing or confronting the racism that still persists. Another large group of Americans sees racism as an ongoing problem which is less acute than a generation or two ago, but has certainly not gone away. The tension between these two views is apparent whenever a racial incident occurs; and it seems like half the country cries racism while the other half accuses the first half of playing the race card.

Read more…

Lots of kids have come down with the dreaded obamaphobia today.  They caught it from their parents.  Where are the truant officers?  The schools probably can not afford them. 

Isn’t it Virginia state law that kids go to school?  Compulsary attendance laws specifically list what constitutes an excused absense and what the attendance laws are.  I don’t think Obamaphobia is on the list of excused absenses–at least I didn’t see it. 

What I find amusing is that most of the people who are keeping little Johnny and Jane home today are the very people who have been stridently going around screaming RULE OF LAW any time the subject of illegal immigration comes up or if they see someone they think might be illegally in the United States.  Funny how rule of law suddenly becomes a convenience.  Maybe this one time, on the first day of school, rule of law can be wink wink nudge nudged away…for a greater cause. 

Video of the President’s speech will be posted as soon as it is available.

President Obama’s text from the speech he is giving to America’s school children, from Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA has been posted at whitehouse.gov. The entire speech can be found HERE.

Here is an excerpt from his speech:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

I orginially posted the speech. It was just too long, so I went back and linked to it. Please take the time to read it, especially if you have children in school. I can’t think of a better message to give to any kid on that first day.

It is the first day of school that really sets the stage for those other 180 days. If you miss the first day, its like buttoning up your shirt not matching the right button with the right button hole. You have missed the beginning.

I applaud President Obama for taking the time to welcome the kids back to school and for acknowledging the importance of doing well. The first day of school is the best time for such an address. In my opinion, he hit a homerun with this one.

ENTIRE SPEECH

The speech reportly lasts around 18 minutes.

Glenn Beck should be baying at the moon by 5 pm on Tuesday, September 8. Apparently he plans an hour long show dedicated to the endoctrination of America’s school children. He feels our republic is under attack:

To help us interpret all this insanity, perhaps its time for a good laugh from Keith Olbermann, who I rarely watch. The only thing left to do is laugh. There is no chance of reason here.

The sad thing is, too many people cannot think for themselves and rely on Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh for their political foundation. Perhaps they would be better off with O’Reilly. He at least is a scholar and on occassion make sense. The others are third rate actors.

Birthers refers to those people who apparently believe President Obama is not rightfully our sitting President, for those of you who don’t know what mashugana means, it’s Yiddish for crazy.  How many time does the state of Hawaii have to verify President Obama’s birth certificate.  Will the third time be the charm? The congressmen in this very aggressive interview with Chris Mathews looks VERY uncomfortable to me, like he has been set up to do something he may not totally believe in, just my perspective though.

When George Bush won the presidency in 2000, by the final ruling of the Supreme Court, I accepted that he was my President and THAT was certainly a conflicted election!  That is how this country works, its truly a miracle that we have such peaceful elections. Now it’s time for the other side to start governing and accept that they lost. 

I love how Chris Mathews refuses to let Rep. Campbell off the hook and insist he answer the question whether HE believes President Obama is a U.S. citizen. By the end of the interview, the congressmen capitulates and finally answers that he believes President Obama is indeed a citizen of the United States. 

Has President Barack Obama caught Biden-disease? Does he have foot in mouth syndrome?

Wednesday night, during a press conference on health care reform, the president fielded one last question where he was asked about the arrest of his friend, Harvard Professor Henry Gates, Jr. President Obama told reporters that he didn’t know all the facts. But he said, “the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.”

Those words brought about great public debate, especially after the country focused on what actually had happened during this altercation. According to CNN:

Crowley wrote in the Cambridge police report that Gates refused to step outside to speak with him, and when Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, “Why, because I’m a black man in America?”

The report said Gates initially refused to show the officer identification, but eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police.

“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me,” Crowley said, according to the report.

Gates was arrested for “loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space” and was released from police custody after spending four hours at the police station.

Officer Jim Crowley also said references were made about his mother. He has refused to apololgize. He says he followed protocol and that he is not a racist. Crowley enters the fray with some very impressive credentials, especially in the field of racial profiling. He has taught a course on the subject for several years.

Here is President Obama’s response:

Did he go far enough? Did President Obama equivocate? Should he apololgize? Was this incident reflective of more serious problems?

In the following video with Neil Cavuto of Fox News, John McCain (of Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran fame) admonishes President Obama for not being encouraging enough to the protestors in Iran.  Congress has passed a resolution condemning violence against the protestors. 

On the other hand, senior statemen like Henry Kissinger have come out praising President Obama and praising for his stance regarding Iran.  Kissinger and like-minded others feel that the United States is in no position to be meddling in the affairs of other sovereign nations. 

The Iran portion of the video goes from 00:00-5:10. (Then the topic changes to health care.)

Both the House and Senate Resolutions:

The House went first, voting 401-5 to adopt a measure (H Res 560) expressing “support for all Iranian citizens who struggle for freedom … condem[nation] of ongoing violence against demonstrators by the government of Iran … and affir[mation] of the universality of individual rights.”

The Senate later adopted by voice vote two measures (S Res 193; S Res 196) backing the protests and calling for free speech in Iran, respectively.

“The time has come for the United States Congress to speak out unequivocally in support of the fundamental right of the Iranian people to determine their future for themselves in freedom,” Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., in a joint statement. “With this resolution, the Senate joined with our colleagues in the House of Representatives to affirm our shared commitment to the universal values of democracy, human rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law, and to condemn the unacceptable violence against the peaceful demonstrators taking place in Iran.”

How do you feel? Should Obama have been more forceful from the beginning in defense of the protestors, especially with strong evidence that the democratic process had been tampered with?

Is Senator McCain right about the U.S. showing more support for the protesting Iranians? Should the President speak only about the civil rights issue of peaceful protest and the human rights issue of allowing protest without violence from the government?