TUCSON, Ariz. - President Barack Obama will send 1,200 National Guard troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border, an administration official and an Arizona congresswoman said Tuesday, pre-empting Republican plans to try to force votes on such a deployment.

Obama will also request $500 million for border protection and law enforcement activities, they said.

If Romney gets the 2012 GOP nod, I'm Chinese.

Indeed Romney is a dangerous opponent. If he gets out of the primaries, and I just don't really see him doing it. Not with that base who won't forget his "RomneyCare" and the Mormon shit too.

Usually I don't pay much attention to Dowd opinion pieces.
But I thought this one was on target.

Once More with Feeling

I don't care for Dowd, either, Lilo (she's too extreme). But that piece was spot on.

The oil spill crisis aside, Obama skipping Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran's Day was ill advised. It's something that the righties will surely mock him for. Not that their opinion counts, but it could have been avoided.

Sir Paul McCartney was honored with the Gershwin Award yesterday at the Library of Congress, presented by President Obama.

Stevie Wonder, The Jonas Brothers, Jerry Seinfeld and other celebrities paid tribute. Paul sang "Michelle" to the First Lady, and in the end everyone joined in on "Hey Jude." I would have loved to have been there, but obviously my invitation got lost in the mail.

FYI, I am hearing it will be broadcast in late July.


TIS


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100603/pl_ynews/ynews_pl2375_4

Yeah, Paul said after he sang Michelle he might be the first person to get punched by a President. haha.

I saw a few clips on tv. I think Paul was truly honored when he said getting this award was great enough but to receive it from "THIS" President....The tidbit I heard of him singing Michelle, Paul sounded nervous.


TIS

I'll have to watch it. I know he joked about making him coming to the White House an ongoing thing. The can do lunch. He'll be cheap. haha.

Also, another tidbit by Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry was talking about lyrics and says "she was just 17, you know what I mean." Seinfeld says (paraphrasing), "No Sir Paul, I'm not sure I know what you mean. Just 17, you could be in trouble in several states" (something to that effect)

Oh, also during Michelle Obama too was turned toward Michelle singing to her. It was really sweet.

TIS

There are about a dozen states where the legal consent to sexual intercourse is 18; in the other states it is less. However, many states do not have a sexual intercourse age when the sex is between those of the same sex.

Jake Knotts speaks his mind.
We got one in the White House already

What mind?

Stupid imbecile. A smart Republican (an oxymoron?) would be taking advantage of President Obama's many weaknesses as of late, not jumping on the race bandwagon. I hate to say it, but President Obama is ripe for the picking. When you're a liberal Democrat, and Spike Lee and Maureen Dowd turn on you during the same week, you know you have problems. But these idiotic southern redneck Republicans can't even attack him for his legitimate weaknesses. They have to make everything ugly.

There are legitimte weaknesses, but his best shot at not being a one term president is apparently the idiocy of his opposition.

I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about...
Drill baby Drill!!!
Stop the death panels!
Let's see his birth certificate!
Wait a minute...Glenn Beck is sending me a message through my fillings.. Be back later..

Just remember, Lilo, when you put on that aluminum hat it is shiny side OUT.

Good advice, DT.

That's what happened to poor old Glenn Beck. He went with the dollar store aluminum foil, which has no shiny side at all. Today, in between racist rants, all he does is drool.

Dumb sonovabitch.

President Obama: "I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

I just don't think that some of the language the President used in the quote above is appropriate for a President to use. This is a time for leadership, not a retreat to pejorative language.

I agree with you, but by waiting so long to admonish BP, Obama has put himself in a no win situation. By not showing any emotion and remaining stoic, he was jumped on for not caring. I think the "so I know whose ass to kick" rant was manufactured emotion, plain and simple, to assuage his critics.

While I agree to a certain extent, no President was more blunt than Harry Truman, and he has gone down in the history books as one of the best. And certain language has become more acceptable by society. I don't think there was anything wrong with it, although I see your point.

But when does acceptable become too much? Shouldn't a very large degree of dignity attach to the Presidency. Shouldn't the President be above using gutter language?

Is "ass" really gutter language? It's not like he referred to Rahm Emmanuel as his bitch or anything.

I guess it's just a matter of opinion. Personally, it didn't bother me.

Perfectly put.

olivant is right...the language and even the tone of just about all his recent is inappropriate coming from a U.S. President. But Obama has proven many times over the past year that he's unworthy of the Office. Now, he has also proven he is completely void of any leadership skills whatsoever. I don't see how anyone could be surprised at the way he's handled this whole thing.

The significance of the 'kick ass' comment (and the entire interview and all the other interviews/speeches he's done on the oil disaster) is that he was clearly trying to act & look tough when he truly doesn't seem to know what else to do. (Except maybe examine a few tar balls on the beach.)

With apologies to big Obama fan Sir Paul McCartney...no, he's not doing a great job and I'm not going to 'lay off'.

Apple

Obama saved us from a depression, is actually WINNING two wars, and passed health care. His aproval ratings are just shy of 50% so it is not time to panic.

As for those critics who wish to be critical PLEASE stick to the facts.

BY RON DZWONKOWSKI
FREE PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Even presidents of the United States have been known to use salty language in moments of frustration — or for calculated effect.

So it was hardly shocking to hear President Barack Obama say in an interview this morning that he was trying to figure out “whose ass to kick” over the Gulf Coast oil spill. Not exactly soaring presidential rhetoric, but it makes the point that he’s angry and intends to hold someone accountable.

Had the president said “I want to know who to know who is responsible so I can inflict some pain on them,” well, the impact just wouldn’t have been the same.

Obama’s expression was fairly mild by contemporary political standards, when vice presidents go around dropping f-bombs.

George H.W. Bush, when he was vice president under Ronald Reagan, used a variation of Obama’s expression — “we kicked a little ass,” he said — to describe his performance in a debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro during the 1984 campaign.

And historians would surely consider Obama pretty tame compared to some other modern presidents, notably Lyndon Baines Johnson.

"People said my language was bad,” Richard Nixon once remarked of his predecessor in the White House, “but Jesus, you should have heard LBJ."

But the American public never did. Back then, presidents were either more private or more discrete in their use of profanity — or maybe they just got away with more because there weren’t so many microphones and cameras around.

Perhaps President Obama could have set a better example for young people in his choice of words. It seems unlikely that he’d let such language from one of his daughters go uncorrected. But then, he made his point — and at a time when profanity is so prevalent in popular culture and sports this level of it will probably be acceptable from a president.
Link

The truth of it is Obama has been coming off like a wimp, and some staffer probably told him to talk tough.

I think the "so I know whose ass to kick" rant was manufactured emotion, plain and simple, to assuage his critics.

That's what I meant, DT. His staffers certainly helped "manufacture" that tough talk.

I don't care what effect the President intended to achieve. There must be a certain level of dignity that attaches to the Presidency and that level eschews any type of foul language.

Talk about eschewing and dignity, I think Bill Clinton lowered the bar with his Monica antics.

Harry Truman would not agree.

I just read "Game Change," and I really have to agree. He's hardly a "tough guy," but he's probably the most intellectual and charismatic President of my lifetime.

If what I read in "Game Change" is to be believed, if any Obama is tough, it would seem to be Michelle. She's a very smart, very strong woman.

PS: McCain is made out to be a cranky old white guy (nothing new there). Hillary is made out to be a self-entitled control freak, who parlayed sympathy from a bad marriage into Senate seat (no surprise there). And Palin is made out to be, well, not very bright, yet quite dangerous. She personifies the old saying that "a little education can be a dangerous thing (BIG surprise there ).