Doesn't this make you think twice about American Corporations having too much power in American politics today?

Today, a broad coalition of civic groups led by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced the success of a petition drive aimed at forcing President Obama to reform the broken Federal Election Commission (FEC).  Through a process set up by the White House, more than 25,000 people joined in the coalition’s demand that the president replace the five FEC commissioners who continue to serve, despite expired terms. The Obama administration has promised an official response to any petition that crosses the 25,000 signature threshold.

Click here to sign CREW's petition.

Today, President Obama will participate in the first completely virtual interview from the White House to talk about his State of the Union Address. During the live interview, which will be held through a Google+ Hangout, the President will answer questions submitted by people from across the country. In fact, more than 227,000 people have participated already, submitting over 133,000 questions and casting more than 1.6 million votes on the questions they would like to hear President Obama address. In the Hangout, the President will be joined by a selection of citizens who will engage in the conversation live.

Don't miss your chance to Hangout with the President. Watch live at 5:30 EST on Monday, January 30, 2012. Your interview with President Obama will be streamed live on

WhiteHouse.gov,

YouTube.com/WhiteHouse and on

the White House Google+ page.

 

The White House on Saturday officially responded to two online petitions, "Stop the E-PARASITE Act" and "Veto the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information," urging the President to reject SOPA and PIPA.

The changeover is simple enough to explain: Lew is well-liked both inside the administration and in Congress. Daley, after about a year in the job, isn’t.

Imagine you took Rahm Emanuel and split him into two people. One of the new Rahms was the pure political animal, the wartime consigliere, the tireless fundraiser, the maniac who jams steak knives into the table while calling out the names of his enemies. You took that guy and put him in charge of your campaign.

The other new Rahm was the policy wonk, the congressman who was Sen. Ron Wyden's first House cosponsor for his comprehensive tax plan, the policymaker who partnered with superwonk Bruce Reed to coauthor 'The Plan: Big Ideas for Change in America.' You took this Rahm and put him in charge of the White House.

What's the first thing your two Rahms would do? Well, given their personalities, and their different focuses, they would fight.

Monday's chief of staff shake-up brings the Obama administration pretty close to the two-Rahms scenario.

 

Wild Turkey Bourbon wants to hire it as an official "spokesbird."

What does that mean, exactly? The bird would strut its stuff as an attraction at Wild Turkey's distillery and, in return, would receive asylum from any sharp objects aimed at its neck.

Master distiller Jimmy Russell made his case bluntly, in a statement: "In a manner of direct speaking, we invite the President to give us the bird."

Apparently the new White House "swag" rule doesn't apply to diplomatic protocol.

First lady Michelle Obama presented sterling silver orchid brooches and sterling silver cufflinks with Hawaiian Koa Wood to the leaders and spouses who gathered for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The gifts came only days after President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning souvenirs that federal agencies buy with taxpayer money to promote their work — items like coffee cups, T-shirts and pens.

The effort was part of a broader executive order to cut $4 billion in waste to redirect the money to more pressing needs and make government more efficient.

World leaders commonly exchange gifts as an act of goodwill and diplomacy. The White House said the gifts represented "a distinct part of the aloha spirit and helps forge new bridges of friendship and understanding."

The intricately designed orchid brooch was handcrafted in sterling silver by Hawaiian artist Wayne Keeth while the cufflinks were designed by Kara Ross, using wood from Hawaiian woodturner Keith Maile. The cufflinks are engraved with the words: "Made Exclusively for Michelle Obama."

___

When you pop the question to your future wife, it never hurts to be from Hawaii.

Michelle Obama said it certainly helped her husband's cause when he asked her to marry him two decades ago.

"That's really one of the reasons I married Barack," the first lady joked during a luncheon for spouses at the APEC forum. "When I realized that this is where we'd be spending the holidays, I said, `Yes — I love you!'"

The Obamas typically spend the Christmas holidays in Oahu, the island where the president was born and spent most of his childhood.

"Our family has the privilege of coming here — the burden of coming back here every year," Mrs. Obama said to laughter.

___

Even amid the swaying palm trees and blue skies, Obama had plenty of reminders of politics back on the mainland.

At the entrance of the J.W. Marriott Resort Hotel, where Obama addressed APEC leaders, four little girls each held up a piece of paper with letters spelling out the name "C-A-I-N," a reference to Republican presidential contender Herman Cain.

During a gala dinner on Saturday night, meanwhile, Hawaiian guitarist Makana wore a homemade "Occupy with Aloha" T-shirt, a reference to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

During his performance, Makana repeatedly sang a protest ballad called "We Are the Many," which included lyrics such as "The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw ... and until they are purged we won't withdraw."

The prankster Republican Committee officials of Loudoun County, Virginia decided to invite families to their local Halloween parade this year with a photo montage featuring Barack Obama with a bullet hole in his head, just to inject a little holiday-themed murder fun into the stale mix of vulgar anti-Obama right-wing mass email tropes. HILARIOUS!

Vote for me or burn in hell.

I can't imagine someone running for office saying that.

And yet four candidates -- Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum -- have said they had a sense that God was leading them to run. How far can we be from "vote for me or burn in hell" when it seems we're already comfortable with "vote for me, I've been called by God"?

Soon to be ex-presidential aspirant Donald Trump today denied that Osama bin Laden had been hiding in Trump's hair for the past few years. 

In spite of Trump's denial, rumors have been running rampant, with many doubters insisting on proof that bin Laden was not, in fact, playing "tiptoe through the toupee with Trump." They point to Trump's statement yesterday that he did not think bin Laden had been killed as further indication that Trump might have, in fact, been "hairboring" the fugitive bin Laden all along.

Prominent biophysicist and tonsorial engineer Harry Wiggins opined that "It could be possible. From a strictly technical perspective, it is altogether feasible that the 6' 4" bin Laden could easily have been secretly ensconced in Trump's hair without ever being seen. Besides, both bin Laden and Trump represent large and presumably successful construction industry families, so it seems quite logical that this could be true. Why else would Trump wear his hair in such a ridiculous style all these years?"

The White House refused to comment on the rumor, but a high administration official speaking off the record noted that "Trump was scowling and scratching his scalp almost non-stop at last Saturday's annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner."

DEVELOPING STORY

The White House struck back at Christian evangelical leader Franklin Graham on Monday for suggesting that President Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States.

Graham, the son of evangelical leader Billy Graham -- a long-time counselor to Republican and Democratic presidents -- said on ABC television that Obama "had some issues to deal with" in proving that he was born in Hawaii -- echoing claims from the so-called "birther" movement that have been debunked.

From the April 25 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

President Barack Obama revisited a key campaign promise when he hosted a White House meeting of elected officials and experts on immigration. But if a major overhaul of the nation's immigration policy is his goal, Republicans in Congress say he shouldn't hold his breath.

They say any bill that even hints at amnesty or legalization for millions of illegal immigrants already living and working in the United States is dead before it ever makes an appearance in a congressional committee.

A path to citizenship is "what has doomed all immigration legislation in the last two administrations," California Republican Dan Lungren said during a recent House hearing on immigrant agricultural workers.

The agricultural workers' bill discussed during that hearing, which first was proposed in the last Congress, isn't likely to be revived.

"It's not going to pass," Lungren said matter-of-factly while taking testimony on the visa program that helps supply temporary workers to agricultural businesses. "And it's not going to pass because it has, frankly ... a path to citizenship."

Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said immigration reform proposals that offer a path to legal status are tantamount to amnesty.

"I think most members of Congress and most Americans don't want to reward lawbreakers and don't want to give them amnesty," Smith said Tuesday as Obama held his White House meeting.

The failure of the DREAM Act is a key example. The bill would have provided a path to legal status for law-abiding young people brought to the United States as children who either plan to attend college or join the military.

"Remember, in the last Congress, the Democrats had large majorities and weren't able to pass the comprehensive amnesty bill," Smith said. "I don't think that bipartisan resistance to mass amnesty has (abated)."

Obama also promised to continue working to build a bipartisan consensus around immigration and said he would lead a "civil debate" on the issue in the months ahead, the White House said. But he also said he will not succeed if he alone is leading the debate.

"The president asked the group to commit to moving forward to keep the debate about this issue alive, to keep it alive in the sense that it can get before Congress, where the ultimate resolution of it will have to be obtained," said Bill Bratton, the former police chief in Los Angeles and New York City. "The idea being to go out into our various communities and to speak about the issue."

According to a statement from the White House, "The president urged meeting participants to take a public and active role to lead a constructive and civil debate on the need to fix the broken immigration system. He stressed that in order to tackle the issue successfully they must bring the debate to communities around the country and involve many sectors of American society in insisting that Congress act to create a system that meets our nation's needs for the 21st century and that upholds America's history as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants."

For his part, Smith said he thinks the Obama administration should first secure the U.S.-Mexican border and put a greater emphasis on rooting out illegal workers and the businesses that hire them.

"There are 7 million illegal workers in this country," Smith said. "I'd like to see those jobs go to American citizens and legal workers."

He also criticized the Obama administration for what he sees as a substantial reduction in workplace enforcement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for finding and removing illegal immigrants and enforcing bans on employing them, has greatly reduced the volume of highly public raids that became an enforcement staple of the Bush administration. ICE has been relying instead on audits of paperwork employers are required to maintain that proves their workers are legal.

"It's premature to talk about anything other than enforcing the law and protecting jobs for American citizens and legal immigrants," Smith said.

Lungren and Smith said they do see a relatively promising future for a bill that would require all employers to use the government's employee verification program, E-Verify, and perhaps an improved guest worker program.

Despite what appears to be solid opposition to immigration overhaul bills, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she still sees hope for changes to what she describes as a broken system.

"Ultimately, the system will be reformed and the question is when and how much damage is the country going to have to go through," Lofgren said Tuesday.

Lofgren said she sees "big steps forward" in the future in the form of changes to immigration laws that affect immigrants married to U.S. citizens and a revamped DREAM Act, among others.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

Legislation that requires presidential candidates to prove they are natural-born American citizens before their names can appear on the Arizona ballot was approved by the state Senate on Wednesday.

The bill, H.B. 2177, requires presidential candidates to submit a certified copy of their birth certificate that includes their date and place of birth, the names of their mother and father, and the name of the hospital they were born at.

Sarah Palin was interviewed live today on Fox News' Justice with Judge Jeanine, and was asked to weigh in on the rather sudden addition of Donald Trump's voice to the "Birther movement", as well as the money "The Donald" is devoting to researching the existence of the president's birth certificate. Palin's answer? She noted it wasn't that unthinkable for Trump to be curious about Obama's birth certificate, as it was an issue that has transfixed a sizable segment of the body politic.

As one can see. The Tea-Party is NOT about reducing the budget but about shoving their ideology down our throats.

It's been rough, I get it. I don't blame you for staying home during the midterms, but I warned you that it might result in all those Tea Party folks snagging some seats in Congress and the House going to the Republicans. Well, unfortunately, I was right and here we are, right back where we were 16 years ago (that's the last time we had a Democratic president facing off against a Republican House leader over the federal budget). It's no fun, let me tell you.

Only this time the stand off almost crippled our already hobbled economy which would have sent us back into the danger zone.

Despite a recent poll in which 63 percent of respondents said the economy was the most important thing the president has to deal with (followed by unemployment at 54 percent and health care at 52 percent), the issue that almost broke the budget was … wait for it … abortion.

The deadline was Friday midnight—or a government shutdown, right?

Well, it turns out it was 12:28 a.m. when a temporary measure to keep government running for another week actually received final passage by the House. And after that, President Obama waited until Saturday afternoon to sign it.

In fact, that bill to give lawmakers more time to work on final legislative language on their handshake agreement regarding a longer-term spending bill for the remainder of this fiscal year didn't even arrive on the House floor for passage until 12:05 a.m.—five minutes after the stroke of midnight.

On the other side was a strong-willed Obama, who mostly succeeded in forcing Republicans to cave in on dozens of controversial conservative policy prescriptions — including rolling back environmental protections and cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer assistance while protecting favored programs like education, clean energy and medical research.

It was, in short, the type of split-the-differences deal that a political scientist might have predicted from the start, given the realities of divided government.

The aide said negotiators from the House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House met for a final time Friday evening, finally agreeing to a figure of roughly $38 billion. Each side made some final concessions: Democrats agreed to add half a billion dollars in additional cuts to mandatory spending, while Republicans agreed that no language related to Planned Parenthood and Title X funding would be in the short-term funding bill.

They finished negotiations only an hour and a half before government funding expired. If one chamber had not moved by about 11 p.m., the government would have begun to shut down, the aide said.

Negotiators from the House, Senate, and White House have hammered out a tentative deal to fund the government for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year. That deal gives Republicans most of what they wanted and saves Democrats only from a few policy riders that they'd feared. It cuts, reportedly, $39 billion of spending, and that's $8 billion more than Republicans had started asking for in February, when this process started.�?

"Joe Biden wasn't flustered, but he was damn mad," Reid told reporters at the Capitol. "It shows how we've come to such an impasse here."

Earlier, Reid told reporters at another gaggle that "Biden, who sat very silent though this whole meeting, finally said ... 'Well, fine, let the American people decide this issue, then.' "

A GREAT MAN

It’s so easy to sit and talk about others, while you know nothing of what you are actually talking about. Wishing others harm while they are making tough decisions to save millions of lives. People, please look at how the republicans are saying all these corrupt, foul, venomous, harmful, words of hate against The President Of The United States only to set distraction, and weaken concentration while taking on the many, many troubles of the Whole World. People Of The World, bear witness To A GREAT MAN President Barack Obama,

as he moves forward steady, and strong, while the republicans are beating him with their hateful word as though with a whips, As though THEY, the republicans are spiting on his every move,

crucifying him as A MAN who has no right to leadership, or opportunity to help All people of the world hold on to the life, and livelihood they have built for themselves through hard labor, no food on their tables. The poor, the middle class, one and all. For they ( The Republicans) speak of President Barack Obama with words of the lowest, hate filled, slow spit tongued slurs such as they are throwing stones at him. Hitting , and beating on him, as well as his loved ones with words, instead of actual objects of destruction as of a modern day crucifixion of old. The Republicans are so enraged with President Barack Obamas intelligence to make change, and the overwhelming love the world has for him. The republican party put together bands, and large groups of people carrying many different names, to expand the republican party even further, and larger to TRY to spew this hatred for Our President like a sickness. Trying to pass this hatred on. For the republicans gold is, and they announced it, to make President Barack Obama a one term president. But the truth, and strength found within The Greatness of Barack Obama attract more Love, and Respect for the sincere works he show to The people, America, and the world as he fights his way through all the enemies, and smiling faces all around him, and within his house. Who give a cheerful hello, or no words to him in passing. Will only want to trap him up, and bring him down in any means necessary is the republicans business plan of action. Only to hurt President Barack Obama up coming election. pass this hatred through the many webs they’ve spun and are spinning as you read this.

. The leadership of President Barack Obama to pick the piece up of a Nation which was broken is no a task that ca be done overnight. President Barack Obama mentioned as he was addressing America, saying “let’s not give the keys back to the republicans now that we got the car out of the ditch”. Also stating that we got to stick with him or, the republicans will try to take the keys back. President Barack Obama is working to repair America to lift her financial corruption, and wars, due to like of correct leadership. President Barack Obama started his presidency ready and willing to lift Americas people in need of jobs, families in need of someone to help them save their homes. Countries buried in devastation from natural catastrophe. Oil spills the people blamed on him? Budget control from previous presidential managed golden parshoot bailouts, which again due to republican people that left office stealing Trillions of dollars hidden here and there, oil, land, bonds and unmentionable loads of wealth for them, AND THEIR FAMLIES as they always mention. While they bailout, par shoot. With their golden mounds of wealth from certain high up government offices. And NOW the republicans want to panic, saying OH the government is spending to much money to help the middle class, and the poor people , we got to stop them, the mint isn‘t for the poor and middle class, we‘ve got to step in and stop this, and cut their programs, and keep them where they belong, down there, not any where near Us and our families. Have you Ever, seen a President being treated this way in Your Entire Life.
lbg

It takes a cretin kind of soul to walk in the shoes of such a great man willing to forsake himself to save, bring peace, and prosperity to a world that seems to be dying from all corners of the earth …

Politics is a dirty business. Its history contains some of the most unsavory and slanderous conduct imaginable. In recent years there seems to have been an escalation by conservative activists who were never able to accept the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States. From Inauguration Day, when Fox News immediately began speculating that Obama was illegitimate because Supreme Court Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath of office, to the present where we see the president still shirking off allegations of treasonous sympathies for Muslim terrorists, America's right-wingers have orchestrated an aggressive assault on those they consider to be their enemies. Well, we don't have to lay down and take it. Here are some of the ways we can fight back:

As British, French and Canadian warplanes sped towards Libyan airspace, Gaddafi's "ceasefire" had proved to be a fiction. His troops had penetrated deep into Benghazi, where street battles and an artillery bombardment continued through the day. News reports estimated that at least 26 bodies and more than 40 wounded people had been taken to the city's Jala hospital.

"Do we have to wait till he kills us all before the [world] acts? We are very disappointed," said Adel Mansoura, an air traffic controller fleeing Benghazi. "When we heard the UN resolution, we were very happy and thought we had our freedom, but now we have been left on our own to the killers."

In Paris, where world leaders had gathered to plan the military enforcement of the resolution, there was consternation at Gaddafi's duplicity and a determination to ensure a rapid response. According to one French official, Mirage and Rafale fighter jets were already flying over Benghazi with authorisation to attack tanks. The western battle to rid the world of one of its most eccentric and violent tyrants had begun almost as soon as the Paris summit ended.

Also see: Operation Odyssey Dawn: U.S. Launches Military Strikes In Libya

Yesterday, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that granted full legal rights to male genitals. In a 7 to 2 decision, the high court agreed with the finding of the US Court of Appeals, Eleventh District, in the case of Johnson v. Planned Parenthood. In a rare moment of public commentary, Justice Clarence Thomas explained the majority opinion by citing 19th century jurist, John Thomas (no relation), who argued the principle of penis decisis in his famous ruling against women's suffrage. "It was the clear intent of the Founding Fathers," the present day Judge Thomas asserted, "that those with male genitalia should be the ultimate arbiters of the common good. It is simply a logical extension to recognize the autonomy of the most prominent feature of the bodies of deciders. It has always pointed the way, and men have always been compelled to follow."

If last week's version of the GOP's temporary government-funding bill�?took a scalpel to the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency, the new version trims it with something more akin to a chainsaw.

The latest version of the seven-month spending plan (called a "continuing resolution," or a "CR" in Washington-speak) from House Republicans would hack $3 billion from the agency's budget—a 29 percent cut from 2010 levels and nearly twice the proposed cuts in the original plan. It would specifically bar the agency from using funds for the development and implementation of greenhouse gas regulations, and would cut funding for the EPA's Global Change program, which conducts research on climate change, by a third.

The new CR would also block the White House from filling the energy and climate adviser post that Carol Browner is vacating. (See ClimateWire for more on the specific cuts).

The image of Reagan as a conservative superhero is myth, created to unite the various factions of the right behind a common leader.

Now Senator Jon Kyl and his colleagues in the Finance Committee are threatening to block the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides income and training for American workers whose employers can't compete with rising imports. It is due to expire on Feb. 12, and Mr. Kyl and company are refusing to extend it unless the White House promises to advance the long-pending trade deal with Colombia.

We agree that President Obama needs to press Congressional Democrats to approve the agreement without delay. But Senator Kyl's tactics make no sense (raising questions about his motivations). His obstruction will punish American workers. It will also hurt Colombia.

TPM:
"Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took a stab at reaching across the aisle this morning, saying he'd like to work with President Obama on what he called "the really serious, seemingly intractable problems" in the country today. His advice to a president who's signaled he's willing to come to the center and make deals with the new Republican-heavy Congress? Become one of us, and bipartisanship should be no problem.

"If the president is willing to do what I and my members would do anyway, we're not going to say no," McConnell told an audience of journalists and political insiders at a breakfast meeting hosted by Politico in Washington today.

..................."

As Obama seeks to tighten federal control over local schools and boost accountability, he faces a tough battle with incoming GOP lawmakers, who advocate "parental rights" and tax credits for home schooling.
When it comes to school reform, President Obama and his secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, intend to spend 2011 pursuing more federal influence over local schools—particularly in the areas of curriculum standards and teacher evaluation and pay. "Am I hopeful? Absolutely," Duncan told Politico last month. "Am I optimistic? Yes. Do I think it's the right thing to do for children, for the country? Absolutely."

if the White House gave up something that, realistically speaking, it had already lost in the November elections, GOP leaders made big concessions, too. By bargaining with President Obama, they made it harder to portray him as a Socialist Demiurge out to destroy capitalism. They conceded him a legitimacy the professional right has denied him for two years.

The Party of No was forced to say yes. From a Tea Party perspective, GOP leaders agreed to increase the budget deficit purely for the sake of multimillionaire tax cuts. How much clearer can things get?

This time, he got Republicans to budge off square one. Plus, he avoided a bruising and futile confrontation over the accursed Bush tax cuts that could have paralyzed Washington for months.

At minimum, the White House bought itself some precious time.

Let's review for a moment. The White House and Senate are negotiation to keep the wealthiest of Americans happy, and potentially increase taxes for lower income people, while creating a Social Security timebomb with the "temporary" payroll tax holiday (since when was "temporary tax cuts" in Republicans' vocabulary?).

Against that backdrop, a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis sounds a huge warning bell for America's seniors, current and future.

Mr. Obama effectively traded tax cuts for the affluent, which Republicans were demanding, for a second stimulus bill that seemed improbable a few weeks ago. Mr. Obama yielded to Republicans on extending the high-end Bush tax cuts and on cutting the estate tax below its scheduled level. In exchange, Republicans agreed to extend unemployment benefits, cut payroll taxes and business taxes, and extend a grab bag of tax credits for college tuition and other items.

For the White House, the deal represents a clear shift in policy focus. Mr. Obama and Democrats spent much of the last year pursuing long-term goals like a health care overhaul and financial regulation, while hoping the economic recovery would continue. But with the recovery faltering and Republicans retaking the House, the administration is turning back to short-term job creation.

Liberal Democrats are in revolt at the tax deal that President Obama struck with Republicans on Monday, and it is not hard to understand why. By temporarily extending income tax breaks for the richest Americans, and cutting estate taxes for the ultrawealthy, the deal will redistribute billions of dollars from job creation to people who do not need the money.

But the Democrats should vote for this deal, because it is the only one they are going to get.

Yet the vilification of President Obama as a socialist began before he had fully unpacked at the White House. It has been relentless ever since, even though the charge misrepresents the truth.

Said Rush Limbaugh on Fox's "Sean Hannity" program on Jan. 22, 2009, just two days after Obama took the oath of office: "So I shamelessly say, no, I want him to fail. . . . Why would I want socialism to succeed?

Six months later, Sarah Palin weighed in on "Hannity": "Our country could evolve into something we do not even recognize. . ." Hannity interrupted her: "Socialism?" Palin: "Well, that's where we are headed."

Health insurers last year gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million that was used to oppose the health-care overhaul law, according to tax records and people familiar with the donation.

It's the equivalent of a full-employment plan for D.C. lawyers. Issa will be handing out subpoenas like he's handing out candy on Halloween. When former President Bill Clinton, who knows a little something about GOP witch hunts, said in September Republicans would pursue "two years of unrelenting investigations," he knew what he was talking about.

To put it in perspective, the outgoing chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), was pretty aggressive towards the end of the Bush/Cheney administration, holding 203 oversight hearings in two years. Issa intends to hold 280 oversight hearings in 2011 alone.

Here it is ! The most comprehensive list of President Barack Obama's accomplishments to date.

Compiled by Robert P. Watson, Ph. D., a presidential historian and Professor of American Studies at Lynn University, this detailed list of 244 accomplishments demonstrates that President Obama has achieved more in just twenty months than his predecessor did in eight years.

It also exposes as false critics' allegations that the President, his Administration, and the Democrats have a failed agenda.

More to be done. GET OUT THE VOTE on November 2!

I was asked by Jeff Coleman a student here the USA to post his recent speech based report for School that he will Present to in school tomorrow.

There is no greater issue that affects the world's population than healthcare. Healthcare is the single most common affair that affects every person in the world, but in unique and personal circumstances. To preserve a high standard of life and quality health, a society must establish a healthcare system that is just and balanced. In the process of designing a healthcare system for a society, one must realize due to the complicated personal nature of one's healthcare there has never been a perfectly designed system to deliver healthcare to a society.

In my opinion I would favor a system without any middlemen whether it be government or a private entity, rather a system based on patient to doctor payments. Thus, preventing unethical motivations of self interest whether it be monetary or political acclaim. With that said, I find the Canadian Healthcare system more favorable than our current American for-profit system. For the fact, the Canadian system does not unfairly discriminate based on personal economical and social class status compared to America's current healthcare system. The Canadian system is not unlike our current Medicaid system where as financial and policy oversight is shared between the federal government and provincial territories. Due to our recent political climate you may have heard various interpretations of Canada's healthcare system, without delving into lengthy detail, one of the most common key components to Canadian style healthcare opposition in the united States is reports of long waiting periods for medical attention. To understand the Canadian system you must comprehend the Canadian society, how the citizens view each other socially and how they prioritize each citizen recognizing that it requires every individual's contribution to each other to shape a pleasurable, civilized society for themselves, their future generations and fellow citizens to relish upon. Each providence has the majority control of policy regarding wait times and medical facilities, while the medical professionals are private and while the federal government primarily administers the financial obligations of the system. Some providences have adapted medical policy based on citizen feedback that is determined by social views of each citizen, while nearly every immediate medical emergency is prioritized and handled in a appropriate fashion comparable to the United States. While alternative or elective procedures are treated based on a severity scale. Canada is not unlike the US for rural areas, in both countries suffer from a shortage of medical professionals. Contrary to America's current system that emphasizes on high cost specialty care which in itself resulted in an ever increasing shortage of American primary physicians due to the high incentives of specialty care. The Canadian system highly targets preventative measures to ensure the everyday health of their citizens resulting in some providences to depreciate the value of specialty care, thus increasing waiting periods on selective, elective procedures.

In closing, I anticipate that many will strongly disagree with my opinion favoring the Canadian healthcare system, but I am confident that I have presented two different types of payment delivery systems attached to very similar healthcare systems. For they suffer similar short comings equally on the medical professional side of the spectrum and unequally at the point of access side of the spectrum. Despite the fact, that none of the current healthcare proposals of the past year for reforming the American healthcare system address the core and inherit, systemic flaws of our healthcare, I still believe that we could perfect upon the Canadian style system for far less the cost to maintain our defective system. In the end, there is only one ethical question a person needs to ask there self , "whether you want a society that is fair and just treating everyone equally or a society that allows a former president to skip his cardiologist appointment to be immediately seen the next day and hospitalized for heart surgery due to his financial and social status while millions suffer everyday"?

Source: Jeff Coleman & Researching consultant BCT

Obama returned to the proven format of a large college campus to launch a pre-election push for fellow Democrats. Speaking to what was once one of his most fervent fan bases - students - he unleashed a string of dire warnings about Republican control, arguing that his opponents are banking on Democratic indifference to return to power.

"The biggest mistake we could make is to let disappointment or frustration lead to apathy . . . that is how the other side wins," Obama said. "If the other side does win, they will spend the next two years fighting for the very same policies that led to this recession in the first place."

The Senate approved it on a 61-38 vote last week, with two Republicans breaking a GOP filibuster to join the 59 Democrats in supporting the measure. The House then voted 237-187 on mostly partisan lines to send the bill to Obama's desk.

Obama noted the political battle in his remarks Monday, saying the relief provided by the measure was "needlessly delayed" by Republican senators until last week.

A health reform mandate taking effect Thursday requires insurance companies to cover children with pre-existing conditions until the age of 19. Insurance giants have already figured out how to game the new policy to get out of covering sick kids: dropping all child-only plans.

The Denver Post reports that at least 6 large insurers, including Anthem, Aetna, Cigna and Humana, have opted to stop offering new policies to children not already covered by their parents' insurance.

Republicans proved once again Tuesday that they have no intention of working with their counterparts across the aisle. They do not believe, as Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike McMullen believes, as President Obama believes, and as most of the American people believe, that civil rights should apply to everyone equally. And they never will. Eventually, they will lose their retrograde attempts to keep the old rules and their twisted prejudices in place.

Now they're passing around the text and video of Obama's Labor Day speech. The president has tested out the themes and jokes he used in the Milwaukee speech in previous venues (usually partisan fundraisers). What seemed to make it work in front of the crowd of 10,000 was his level of engagement. Democratic voters need to believe that they can keep control of Congress despite the bad poll numbers. Obama, who is taking a pounding in the polls, looked like a man who had a secret to the comeback. He sounded like a happy warrior, laughing at his jokes before he'd told them. He even did voices, embellishing his tale about Republicans who drove the economy into the ditch. "We're sweating, and these guys were watching us and sipping on a Slurpee," he said to crowd laughter before impersonating his uptight GOP opponents. "And they're pointing at us and saying 'How come you're not pushing harder?' "

One of the first provisions of the PPACA to come into effect was the establishment of a set of high-risk insurance pools across the country. A Federal program for states that did not want to run their own, and state programs running in accord with Federal guidelines for those states that wanted to create their own programs.

Classic BP tactics. Now they are trying to hold us hostage with their pay outs.

"Unfortunately, this bill has been languishing in the Senate for months, held up by a partisan minority that won't even allow it to go to a vote," he said, speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden. "That makes no sense."

Pounding the lectern, Obama continued: "Holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth. So I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade."

The last thing Obama did before leaving Aug. 19 for his 10-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard was call out the GOP for opposing the jobs measure, which he said would cut taxes, make loans more available for small businesses and encourage them to hire, lowering the unemployment rate.

"It's obstruction that defies common sense," Obama said outside the White House at the time.

Zandi had other problems with Boehner's big speech. When asked about Boehner's claim that "all this stimulus spending has gotten us nowhere," he responded:

"That is just wrong. The stimulus has been very helpful. … We'd be in a measurably worse place if not for the stimulus. … I don't think it is any coincidence that the Great Recession ended at precisely the same time that the [Recovery Act] … was providing its maximum economic benefit."

Instead of a national unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, he said, it would be closer to 11.5 percent.

Who could have imagined that the bailout of the auto industry, one of the single most unpopular moves by the Obama administration, would become one of its best talking points?

But don't for an instant imagine that the comeback of the nation's rescued car companies, particularly General Motors, will change the way we debate government's role in the economy. When it comes to almost anything the government does, ideology trumps facts, slogans trump reality, and loaded words ("socialism") trump data.

Talker Rush Limbaugh, speaker for Republicans everywhere, famously railed against drug users and called for harsher sentencing for possession when it was fashionable in the '90s. Then in 2006 Limbaugh was arrested and went to rehab after losing his hearing as a direct result of his long-term drug addiction. Needless to say, he's cool with hypocrisy. He even thinks hypocrisy a good thing. During South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's "Appalachian Trail" love affair last year, Limbaugh defended the Republican politician, telling his audience, "Hypocrisy shows that there are moral values in a culture. Without moral values in a culture it would not be possible for anyone to be a hypocrite."

Tell the White House Correspondents Association: Give the best seat in the briefing room to NPR, not FOX!

FOX News is a right-wing propaganda outlet, not a legitimate news agency. In recent weeks the network has turned the volume up on its race-baiting political agenda. The media assault on Shirley Sherrod is just a latest in a series of racist and politically motivated attacks on targets like Van Jones, ACORN, and Eric Holder's Department of Justice.

It's bad enough that we have to fight the constant smear campaigns and appeals to racial paranoia from FOX and the right-wing media. We can't let them have the best seat in the White House press briefing room and the legitimacy that it confers.

Demand that a representative of a legitimate news agency get Helen Thomas' White House Briefing Room seat, not a right-wing shill from FOX.

Today I sent this letter via both email and fax to the White House Correspondents Association regarding the application of, among others, Fox News (not) to fill the seat vacated by Helen Thomas.

I urge readers to also object to lending credibility to the Fox network by giving them a seat.

Also, there is a petition here that you can sign which asks that they give the seat to NPR rather than FAUX.

Glenn Beck is clearly a master of race baiting. This video shows it very well.

For a few hours last week, Eric Holder could breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, it wasn't the attorney general but another African American government official whom right-wingers were smearing with allegations of reverse racism. But Andrew Breitbart and other conservative troublemakers' efforts to turn Shirley Sherrod into Angela Davis proved so ludicrously unfair that they only wound up enhancing Sherrod's reputation.

So it wasn't long before Breitbart et al turned their attentions away from Sherrod and back to Holder, their favorite target in the Obama administration for any racially charged critique. In reality, the case against Holder is just as thin (if not thinner) than the one against Sherrod. But, if you watch enough Fox News, you might think Holder has officially changed his name to Malik Zulu Shabazz.

Want to get the inside scoop on what's going on at the White House delivered to your inbox each morning?

The Daily Snapshot is a quick look at what's happening each day at the White House. It includes the President and Vice President's daily schedules, a look at what's hot on the White House blog, the Photo of the Day and other important updates.

According to the New York Times, based on an analysis of four sets of political science data, now after five terms, Chief Justice John Roberts' Supreme Court is "the most conservative one in living memory."

During this time, the Roberts court "issued conservative decisions 58 percent of the time" and, in the last year, that rate increased to 65 percent, the highest since 1953.

Monday July 19th
11:18 a.m.*: Breitbart posts Sherrod video, calls her "racist."

On July 19, FoxNews.com reported: "Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over allegations of racism, a video has surfaced showing an Agriculture Department official regaling an NAACP audience with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy."
...

1:40 p.m. (approximately): Fox Nation accuses Sherrod of "discrimination caught on tape" before she resigned.
The first reader to comment on the post is from July 19 at 1:41 p.m.:

...

7:51 p.m.: Big Government links to a FoxNews.com article reporting that Sherrod had resigned and USDA repudiated her remarks.

8:50 p.m.: On his Fox News program, Bill O'Reilly stated that "Sherrod was caught on tape saying something very disturbing. Seems a white farmer in Georgia had requested government assistance from Ms. Sherrod." After airing Breitbart's video, O'Reilly stated: "That is simply unacceptable. And Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately." (accessed via Nexis)

9:04 p.m.: "Fox News Alert": Hannity reports that Sherrod has resigned and discusses the incident with Gingrich. (accessed via Nexis)

...

Tuesday July 20 2010
...
6:08 a.m. Sherrod story hits Fox & Friends: "Exhibit A" in "what racism looks like."

6:43 a.m.: Morning Joe airs Sherrod clip. Co-host Joe Scarborough then said " I think its relevance relates back to the New Black Panthers tapes that have been out there."

8:05 a.m.: Ingraham: "Andrew Breitbart ... did a great piece on this whole thing."
...
11:06 a.m.: On CNN Newsroom, Sherrod claims she was told to resign because she would "be on Glenn Beck tonight."

11:20 a.m.: On CNN Newsroom, farmer's wife calls Sherrod a "friend" who "helped us save our farm."

12:10 p.m.: Limbaugh calls Breitbart's heavily edited video of Sherrod "great work." He later stated that "[t]he NAACP is as racist an organization as there has been and is in this country."

1:03 p.m.: Johnny Wilkerson, the owner of the video company contracted to shoot the video, told TPM "that the full speech is exactly as Sherrod described, and that she goes on to explain learning the error of her initial impression and helping the farmer keep his farm."

3:01 p.m.: Brent Bozell slams media for not covering Sherrod's "racist remarks."

...

5:13 p.m. (approximately): In a post titled, "Sherrod: White House Made Me Quit 'Because I Was Going to Be on Glenn Beck," Fox Nation linked to Big Government's post of the same title. The link has since been updated and redirects to a different Fox Nation post titled "USDA Reconsidering Sherrod's Ouster Over Racial Comments." The first comments on this post are time-stamped 5:13 p.m
...

6:41 p.m.: Bret Baier falsely claims, "Fox News didn't even do the story" on Sherrod.

7:15 p.m.: Breitbart refuses to accept Sherrod's "word that the farmer's wife is the farmer's wife."

7:45 p.m. (approximately): The NAACP released the full video of Sherrod's remarks at the NAACP banquet, noting that Breitbart's deceptively edited video "didn't tell the full story" and was "selectively edited to cast her in a negative light."

The full article is best accessed for its link and detailed work most of which is not captured here

Mr. Geithner said the White House will allow taxes on top earners to increase on Jan. 1, 2011, as part of an effort to help bring down the mounting budget deficit. He said the White House still plans to extend tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans and expects to undertake a broader tax overhaul next year.

A new White House report says last year's $862 billion stimulus law has now "saved or created" between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs.

That's up from 2.2 million to 2.8 million in the last quarterly report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Christina Romer, head of the council, says in congressional testimony prepared for Wednesday that every $1 from the stimulus bill is matched by $3 in private money.

She says the law "appears to be stimulating private investment and job creation at a time when the economy needs it most."

President Barack Obama has traveled the country telling voters that as bad as things are, they'd be worse without the stimulus. He acknowledges the message is a tough sell. Obama travels Thursday to Michigan.

One of the many far-right talking points today is that liberals try to put all of the blame on former President Bush. Each time one of us points out that Bush caused any of the numerous catastrophes we're dealing with today, a Conservative winger steps up to cry foul. The blame game is nothing new to Washington, and if there were a scoreboard, the Conservatives would be winning by a landslide. And a key element to their tactic is rather simple: blame everything on the last guy (or even the next guy, as we'll discuss here shortly), and when someone calls you on your mistakes, just claim they aren't living in the present, and are instead relying on the past to divert from their own shortcomings. This strategy is remarkably easy to see past, but you'd be surprised to learn just how effective it can be.

To begin, let's take a trip back to the Administration of former President Bill Clinton. As any economist or historian worth their weight in stones will tell you, President Clinton oversaw the largest economic expanse in this country's history. Most moderate conservatives will agree with that statement, though they might argue that it was both the White House and the Republican-Majority on the hill that made that happen. Liberals might disagree, but it's a respectable position nonetheless. But what's the far-right's view? Some will try to tell you that the fiscal successes of the Clinton administration were actually the result of policies enacted under Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. Others might point to the internet bubble burst of the nineties, in an effort to claim that the period wasn't quite as peachy as others make it out to be. But finding an element of the far right that willingly admits that President Clinton was a brilliant economic strategist is less likely than winning the lottery and being struck by lightning on the same day. Sure, it could happen, and hey, it's probably happened before. But I wouldn't want to head to a casino with those odds.

Fast-forward to today, and we're seeing much of the same, only largely applied in reverse. The list of problems that the far right blames on President Obama is almost too staggering to list here. Of those, some of the more comical comments you might come across include blaming the President for both wars in Iraq, the oil spill, the recession, and -- are you sitting down? -- 9/11, as former New York City Mayor and GOP Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani would have us believe. This virtually coming on the heels of his claim that we were never attacked under President Bush... but I digress. The name of the game during Bush's Presidency was to blame everything on Clinton. As it stands today, nothing is Bush's fault, and everything is either Obama's or Clinton's.

Well, here's the problem, folks. President Bush? He did it. Almost all of it. If you wake up in the morning and turn on the news, only to let out a melancholy, frustrated sigh, then chances are you're upset because of something that either Bush's administration did directly, or something they presided over in their time on Pennsylvania Avenue. Most of my regular readers just nodded at the screen and said "yes" out loud, while the far-right conservatives grunted and are looking around their desk for something to throw at the monitor. But let's be honest, with ourselves if not each other. President Bush caused most of the problems that President Obama is facing today, and that's an absolute fact. Need a few cases in point?

Both Wars: President Bush was serving his first term in the White House when both the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq were initiated. It was his administration that presented their then-compelling "WMD" case to the Congress, with conservative elements of the media fueling public support. Not that it was entirely necessary, seeing as how Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate when the votes were cast.

The Recession: President Bush worked for tax cuts for the wealthy and de-regulation, and he allowed price-gouging by oil companies to go unnoticed, which increased the cost of living for Americans and contributed more to our current recession than some media outlets care to admit. The recession is recognized as having started in 2007, and some place its true beginnings back as early as 2005. If you're earnings place you below the middle class, you might argue that the recession really started as early as 2003. These land firmly in the years of the Bush Presidency. And seeing as how he couldn't name the price of a gallon of gas in 2008, it's obvious he wasn't doing much to thwart it, either.

The Oil Spill: That's right, I went there! During the Bush Administration, the MMS (Minerals Management Service) was left largely unchecked by the White House. Their agents got into bed -- quite literally -- with oil company executives. Bush paid no heed to this problem, and many believe that he didn't rightly care because of his family's infamous ties to the oil industry. The MMS virtually fell apart under the weight of their numerous scandals, and while President Obama's administration did bring the poor behavior of the agency to the public's attention well before the oil spill, they had their hands full with the various other issues on the table.

The Nation's Divisions: Few would argue when I say that the United States is more divided today than it has been in at least my own thirty years of life. I could very well write an entire article about the source of this division, but to sum things up, President Bush used the September 11th attacks to paint his liberal opponents as some measure of allies to terrorists, and to make people believe that we couldn't possibly be safe in the hands of a Democrat. While the conservative-versus-liberal debate dates back to ancient Greece, and while much of the far right's collective contemporary persona was molded during the Reagan era, the Bush Administration in and of itself was the powder keg that led us to our current state of political discourse.

I could easily continue, but I think I've made my point. Some of you might now be wondering why blaming Bush matters. After all, President Obama is the current Commander-In-Chief. Shouldn't he take credit for these various problems not being fixed yet? Well, yes and no. he should be held accountable for adding to these problems in whatever ways he does, and he should also be blamed for not getting everything fixed quickly enough, should that need arise. But anyone who tries to tell you that someone else could have solved these problems in less time is either blatantly lying to you, or they literally know nothing about the nature or gravity of our various situations.

At the end of the day, it's important for the far right to understand something crucial in this debate, and I say this knowing full well that there's absolutely no chance that any element of the far right is going to acknowledge this. We aren't blaming Bush because we want to take the heat off of President Obama's shortcomings. In fact, many of us have been quite vocal in our opposition to some of his policies, including (but not limited to) offshore drilling, his slow action on equal rights for gays and lesbians, the healthcare mandate, and numerous other issues. Perhaps if you stopped screaming for just a moment, you might have actually heard those complaints. The real reason why we blame Bush is two-fold. In one hand, it's vital to understand the source of our various issues, because you can't win the game without knowing the field. In the other hand, we're doing it in self-defense. When the far right persistently blames President Obama for everything, from the oil spill to stubbing their toe when they get out of bed in the morning, only to complain when we point out the fact that Bush caused the problem in question, it leaves many of us scratching our heads. We blame Bush because, quite simply, Bush did it. You might not like to hear it -- mostly because you only like to hear yourselves, and to some lesser extent out of your own guilt for having voted for the guy -- but it's a very simple fact that I've literally heard children proclaim. The sooner you come to terms with that, the sooner we can fix our problems and start talking about the actual pros and cons of President Obama's administration.

That's one of the reasons why we're accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power – steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.

In fact, today, I'm announcing that the Department of Energy is awarding nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies.

The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States. After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it's good news that we've attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America. In the short term, construction will create approximately 1,600 jobs in Arizona. What's more, over 70 percent of the components and products used in construction will be manufactured in the USA, boosting jobs and communities in states up and down the supply chain. Once completed, this plant will be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use – even at night. And it will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 homes.

The second company is Abound Solar Manufacturing, which will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. A Colorado plant is already underway, and an Indiana plant will be built in what's now an empty Chrysler factory. When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year.

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On Thursday, 40 Senate Republicans and one Democrat (Ben Nelson, of course) successfully filibustered a cautious attempt at extending widely agreed-upon tax cuts and necessary unemployment benefits. This, despite having voted to extend similar tax cuts for years. What gives?

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, on Monday evening warned that Republicans may boycott the start of Elena Kagan's Supreme Court hearings if senators do not get to review scores of documents from the solicitor general's past.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll on Obama's top domestic achievement finds support for the new overhaul has risen to its highest point since the survey started asking people about it in September - six months before it became law.

She said the purpose of the right to bear arms is to check the federal government. But she stopped short of saying that she would support an armed uprising.

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Vowing to "make BP pay," President Barack Obama accused the oil giant of "recklessness" in his first address to the nation from the Oval Office Tuesday night, eight weeks to the day after the catastrophic oil spill began destroying waterways, wildlife and a prized Gulf Coast way of life.

"We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long it takes," declared Obama, whose own presidency has been stumbling because of the gushing oil. A new Associated Press-GfK poll even indicates as many Americans disapprove of his handling of the crisis — 52 percent — as felt that way about President George W. Bush's handling of the Katrina aftermath.

Obama offered no immediate remedies for a frustrated nation. Rather he announced he had asked former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan — to be funded by BP PLC — in concert with local states, communities, fishermen, conservationists and residents "as soon as possible."

He did not detail what this effort — he called it a "battle plan" — should include or how much it might cost, a price sure to be in the billions of dollars. Whatever the bottom line, he declared to his prime-time television audience, "We will make BP pay."

That's not certain, however. In declaring that BP won't control the compensation fund for Gulf recovery, Obama failed to mention that the government won't control it, either. The president meets BP executives in a White House showdown on Wednesday.

Fifty-seven days into the crisis, oil continues to gush from the broken wellhead, millions of gallons a day, and Obama has been powerless to stem the leak. The sad episode has raised doubts about his leadership and his administration's response to what Obama has called the nation's worst environmental disaster.

He spoke from the Oval Office while seated at the storied Resolute desk, a bank of family photos and an American flag filling the backdrop. A president sometimes criticized as lacking emotion, Obama talked in a calm tone, no sign of the anger he showed earlier in the week concerning the spill.

In one specific action, Obama announced former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich as his choice for the new head of the agency that regulates the oil industry. Obama said Bromwich's job at the helm of the federal Minerals Management Service is to "the oil industry's watchdog, not its partner." He also said that coming regulatory reforms would require stricter drilling safety measures and more robust spill response plans.

With national frustration rising, Obama sought to defend his increasingly criticized efforts and to stoke new confidence that he can see the job through until the oil is gone and Gulf Coast lives are back to normal.

He pledged not to rest until BP had been held accountable for all the damage its exploded well has caused and until the Gulf Coast region is restored. He did not repeat his earlier pledges to see the Gulf returned to "better shape than it was before."

Likening that process to a long epidemic instead of a single crushing disaster like an earthquake or hurricane, he warned that the nation could be tied up with the oil and its aftermath for months "and even years."

There was more bad news, too.

A government panel of scientists determined that the well is leaking even more oil than previously thought, as much as 2.52 million gallons a day — or enough to fill the Oval Office where Obama sat more than 22 times. The total spilled so far could be as much as 116 million gallons.

Lightning even struck. A bolt hit the ship siphoning oil from the leak — injuring no one but halting containment efforts for five hours.

Back on land, as long as the oil keeps flowing, no one seems happy with what anyone is doing to deal with it, from Obama on down.

Said one spray-painted sign along the president's Florida motorcade route earlier in the day, as Obama capped a two-day inspection tour of the region: "Obama you are useless."

For restaurant owner Regina Shipp, her business suffering for lack of tourists in Orange Beach, Ala., the speech offered little solace.

"He said he's going to make BP pay. Can he? Can he?" said Shipp, standing amid a sea of empty tables at Shipp's Harbour Grill, which she owns with her husband, chef Matt Shipp.

And yet, Obama's overall approval rating has not yet dipped, remaining around the 50 percent mark. Further, the public still is far more eager to blame the company than the president, with the poll showing disapproval of BP up to 83 percent.

On Capitol Hill, dominating the day before the president looked into the cameras from behind the storied Resolute desk, executives of the largest oil companies were grilled for hours by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Lawmakers chastised chief executives representing ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell — as well as BPAmerica — for being no better prepared for the worst than BP.

In sometimes-testy exchanges about the risks of seeking oil under a mile of water, the executives testified their companies would not have managed the Deepwater Horizon well in the same way, suggesting BP shortcuts led to the devastating outcome.

Looking ahead to his White House showdown Wednesday morning with BP executives, Obama said he would "inform" them that the company must set aside in an independently run fund whatever resources are required to make whole all local residents and businesses hurt by the spill and to repair the immense ecological damage wrought by the oil.

That meeting was to be followed by a presidential statement — his fourth planned remarks on the spill in three days. Later in the week, BP leaders take the Washington hot seat again, appearing before more congressional hearings.

BP has had only modest success so far in siphoning some oil from gushing into the water. But Obama said that within weeks "these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well." Later in the summer, he said, the company should finish drilling a relief well to stop the leak completely.

BP officials did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment on the president's specific criticisms. In a brief statement, the company only said it shares Obama's "goal of shutting off the well as quickly as possible, cleaning up the oil and mitigating the impact on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast."

However, Obama said that the new Gulf restoration plan would go beyond just repairing the effects of the crude on a unique, teeming ecology that was already battered by the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"We must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment," the president said.

Much of the president's speech was devoted to a recitation of steps his administration has already taken — "from the very beginning," he said.

Obama also spent a large chunk of his remarks on his goal of passing sweeping energy and climate change legislation, a key domestic priority of his presidency that had become a long shot.

But while Obama urged action, he was subtle about what he was calling on lawmakers and the public to rally behind. For instance, though Obama supports placing a price on heat-trapping carbon emissions, he did not directly state that.

"The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now," he said. "I say we can't afford not to change how we produce and use energy - because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater."

___

Associated Press writers Erica Werner in Pensacola, Fla., Harry Weber in Houston, Jay Reeves in Orange Beach, Ala., and H. Josef Hebert, Seth Borenstein, Ben Feller and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story.

IN MOST democracies, politicians have a wretched time in opposition. America arranges things differently. Even in opposition, the minority party can still play a powerful role. It can propose, shape and—thanks to the arcane filibuster rules of the Senate—frequently block legislation. It can run big state governments and try out new ideas there. And because elections in America are so frequent, it never has to wait long for the next chance to win back the allegiance of the national electorate.

For America's Republicans the 17 months since Barack Obama replaced George Bush in the White House have been unexpectedly sweet. Fewer than 50% of Americans now approve of the way he is doing his job, down from the high 60s at the beginning of 2009.

Democrats in Congress and officials in the White House are making yet another major push to pass legislation to make the liability for oil companies involved in damaging spills unlimited.

On Monday evening, the White House confirmed that it favors the most recent piece of legislation that would drop any numerical ceiling to the amount of money an oil company like BP would have to pay for economic damages caused by a spill. Currently, the cap is $75 million.

Americans who support the President's signing of landmark health care reform today can CO-SIGN. After you co-sign, you're asked for an optional donation ($25 or more gets you a t-shirt.) But you can ignore the campaign donation aspect of all of this and voice your approval of a promise kept, if you're so inclined, of course.