The White House Weighs in on President-Elect Obama

Over the last few days, different members of the Bush Administration have weighed in on Barack Obama being the first black President of the United States. From President Bush to Condoleezza Rice, they have all spoken of this momentous occasion in US history. One member of the White House, though, is clearly a little bit peeved about the election results. I am not sure if it is because he doesn't like Obama, or because he doesn't want to move out, but Senior White House Pet, the Scottish Terrier Barney, is pissed. Here is a video of the testy terrier following a press conference about the White House transition.


According to his White House biography, Barney was born in September of 2000, the son of Coors (a Scottish Terrier owned by former Environmental Protection Agency Director Christine Todd Whitman) and Kelly (of Champion Motherwell Stormwarning).
This means he has spent almost all of his life in the White House. I guess he just doesn't want to go, and is likely angry that Obama has promised his girls a new puppy. He does seem to be a nice dog though. Enjoy some more pictures of Barney.

No End In Sight: Iraq War Documentary Available to View in its Entirety Online

No End in Sight, Charles H. Ferguson's documentary about the occupation of Iraq, is available to watch for free on YouTube until November 5th. The documentary focuses on the first two years of the invasion and the miscalculations of the Bush Administration in engaging in the invasion in the first place. The basic premises of the film are that:

* The rise of the insurgency was not anticipated
* Proper security and basic utilities were not provided for Iraq
* They did not foresee the sectarian violence or potential civil war

What makes this film so significant is not any sort of revelations that come from the film (since most of the information was known in advance of the war by many intellectuals), but that key members of the occupation leadership and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) lay out how the Administration mismanaged the war. This leads to the damning, and widely acknowledged, conclusion that the Bush Administration refused to listen to outsiders who could have foreseen such results. The interviewees include the likes of:

*General Jay Garner( who ran the reconstruction before L. Paul Bremer)
*Ambassador Barbara Bodine
*Richard Armitage (who was deputy secretary of the State Department)
*Robert Hutchings (who was chairman of the National Intelligence Council)
*Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (who was Colin Powell's chief of staff)
*Col. Paul Hughes (who was part of ORHA and then the Coalition Provisional Authority)

The documentary was critically acclaimed (not only having received a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but appearing on the Top 10 list of many critics) and so now, sit back, and enjoy:

Campaign Advertisements: Now This is Just Getting Silly!

It started way back in the primaries...who can forget Hillary Clinton's 3 AM ad accusing Barack Obama of being soft on National Security. Way to chalk up points for the other team, Hillary. Then again, that is not so surprising considering the leaked Clinton internal campaign strategy memos showing that she intentionally sought to portray Obama as a foreigner and bring up Rev. Wright as often as possible.

Then we moved on to the General Election and the McCain ad calling Obama a celebrity, putting him next to images of Brittey Spears and Paris Hilton.

Awesome come back there, John. "Don't vote for Obama, he is popular in Europe. He is like a rock star. I may be boring and can't inspire a single person with my speeches, but I'm no celebrity! I'ma leader." Okay, whatever.

But now there's this: Obama's ad flipping the issue, calling McCAIN the celebrity.

Now...this ad is very well put together. It is funny and extremely clever. It's flashy. It implies that McCain would be another four years of Bush. It turns the tables back on McCain on the whole celebrity issue. And, in reality, it is pretty dishonest.

I do agree, McCain would be (in a lot of instances) more of the same when it comes to Bush policy, and we certainly cannot afford another four years of a Republican in power (especially with two looming Supreme Court vacancies), BUT...to use images of McCain on various talk shows to imply that he is the one that is in fact the celebrity is pretty misleading. I mean, after all, hasn't Barack Obama appeared on late night and talk show programs? Yup, he sure has:
The Colbert Report (2008)
The Daily Show (2005, 2007, and 2008)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2008)
Late Night with Conan O’Brien (2006 and 2008)
Late Show with David Letterman (2004, 2007, and twice in 2008)
Jimmy Kimmel Live (2008)
The Oprah Winfrey Show (2006 and 2006)
Real Time with Bill Maher (2005)
Saturday Night Live (2007)
The Today Show (2007 and 2008)
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2006)
Tavis Smiley (2004 , 2005, 2006, and 2008)
WWE Monday Night Raw (2008)


Well, there you have it. They must BOTH be celebrities. They are both running for President and are both super famous. Obama is just more captivating. It is time for the Obama team to go a new angle, and get back to the policy attacks (which the ad nicely contains in the middle there...they just simply get lost with the celebrity message!)


Either way, at least we don't have any commercials with fun images like this from the Olympics:

Way to hold the flag the proper way King George II.