2074 Pages… And senators will have a full three days to read it before voting.

President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.

On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to “resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.” He said those who died on the nation’s largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.

“The stakes are far too high,” Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.

I had a tear in my eye when I finished reading this post!

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Uncle Jimbo:

He has already had the advice of his entire military chain of command with a near unanimous call for for reinforcements to move to the strategy that won in Iraq. We have watched as he has heard from the deep wisdom of Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel. We have seen him dither and quibble and show a completely ineffectual and uncommitted face to our enemies and the rest of the world. Now months after his hand-picked commander has told him the situation is bad and getting worse, our troops in the field fight and die without the support of their Commander in Chief. He sent 21,000 more brave men and women there and now they are flappin’ in the breeze. How can a squad leader look his men in the eyes and tell them to saddle up and head out on a patrol, perhaps to be the last to die for a cause their President no longer believes in.

You can’t set the circumstances for victory before you commit to trying to win one. You can’t set your strategy based on the hope that quality government will just spring up in the midst of chaos with no security.

Allahpundit has more

God Bless

With Fox News exposed as a political advocacy organization and not a news channel, that leaves msnbc as the #1 most watched news channel on cable.

But with bad news for the Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a funny thing happened on the way to the bonus Hour of Spin. Keith wasn’t there!

Where in the world was Keith Olbermann?

MSNBC boasted that on election night they would present a “special live edition of Countdown” at 10:00 pm. But with bad news for the Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a funny thing happened on the way to the bonus Hour of Spin. Keith wasn’t there! After a live update (not from Olby but from Lawrence O’Donnell) A-Mess-NBC (”the place for politics”) proceeded to rerun the 8:00 pm showing.

Keith had obviously left the building. But why? Where in the world was Keith Olbermann? We don’t know yet, but we think we have a pretty good idea:

Is Jake referring to Keith in this Tweet: NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” is at the White House tonight. This is not a joke.

That doesn’t  include the amendments that we all are waiting for!

Very interesting!

via The Golden State isn’t worth it — latimes.com.

California and Texas are not perfect representatives of the alternative deals, but they come close. Overall, the Census Bureau’s latest data show that state and local government expenditures for all purposes in 2005-06 were 46.8% higher in California than in Texas: $10,070 per person compared with $6,858. Only three states and the District of Columbia saw higher per capita government outlays than California, while those expenditures in Texas were lower than in all but seven states. California ranked 10th in overall taxes levied by state and local governments, on a per capita basis, while Texas, one of only seven states with no individual income tax, was 38th.

I would love to hear what you have to say!