Political Heat

President Barack Obama has certainly raised the bar. In the 72 hours after his State of the Union address -- in which he chastised both parties, but particularly obstructionist Republicans -- Obama went into the last place anyone would have expected him to go. A room full of Republicans. Not only did he give a brilliant speech on the importance of bipartisanship, but he took questions as well. He allowed a roomful of his opponents to ask him, unscripted, what he planned to do about job growth and the economy overall. The Republicans didn't even blink: they went straight for the president's throat. Unfortunately for them, Obama came prepared. Here's a link to the exchange . You can view a video of the president or you can read a transcript. I suggest you watch the video; it's brilliant television, if anything.

Earlier last week , I wrote an article about the (then) pending Supreme Court case regarding speech rights for corporate entities. When I wrote that article, the decision was not yet decided -- though it was fairly clear how the Court was planning to rule. The following day, the Court ruled in a 5-4 split decision exactly the way that was expected: they granted corporations the right to use as much of their treasuries towards electoral campaigns as they wanted. And though they can't donate directly towards campaigns themselves, that decision might not be as far as we may think. The ruling by the Court is disastrous, allowing corporations the right to use millions (if not, perhaps billions someday) of dollars towards political purposes, effectively shutting out the voices of everyday Americans. There's a stark difference, for example, between a single mother donating $25 towards a politician she supports vs. Clear Channel media company being able to produce a million-dollar ...

Posted at Dane101.com is an article on free speech rights for belligerent seniors. More specifically, the article addresses the following: *Do citizens have an absolute right to free speech? *Do our rights to free speech extend to a government-managed entity? Read the article here and decide for yourselves.

Nevada Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has received harsh criticism as of late for a private conversation he had behind closed doors regarding Barack Obama's chances of becoming president during the 2008 election. Disclosed this week in a new book, Reid said of Obama that he could win the election for president because he was a "light-skinned" African-American with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." The words are unfortunate, and criticism is certainly warranted. Private or not, the words Reid used to describe Obama were inappropriate and unfitting of a person in Reid's position. Reid should have, and has since, apologized for making the remark . It certainly wouldn't be wrong for some to question whether Reid deserves to stay in his leadership role. But some are doing so based off of irrational reasoning. Leaders in the Republican Party are calling on Reid to resign because Democrats during former Maj. Leader Trent Lott...

A couple of conservatives are purporting a lie as truth regarding George W. Bush's record on the war on terror. And it's spreading like wildfire. It began with Dana Perino, former Bush administration Press Secretary. Speaking on FOX News' Hannity , Perino made the claim that we aren't as safe under President Obama as we were under the leadership of President Bush. Perino even went as far as to say that under President Bush's tenure, America hadn't seen a terrorist attack. "We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term," Perino told Hannity . Wait...huh? That's a pretty hefty claim to make, considering that, under Bush's first YEAR as president, we saw the attacks of September 11, witnessed terror in the form of the anthrax killer , and captured would-be airplane terrorist Richard Reid, otherwise known as the " Shoe Bomber ." Apparently, the commonly held opinion that we should "Never Forget...

I try to read the local newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal, everyday. I'll admit it...I go to the comics first. But I always read the first section, no matter what -- it's important to stay informed, if only to note what events are coming up later in the week locally. Not surprisingly, my favorite section is the Opinions page. I especially love reading the readers' views as it's a great way to get your blood flowing in the morning. A particular reader definitely had that affect on me today. Writing on the recent Christmas day terrorist plot, the letter read: After all the time President Barack Obama has spent traveling around the world bowing and scraping and apologizing for all the evil things Americans have done to the peace-loving people of the world, I thought we were done with that whole blowing up airliners thing. But if Abdulmutallab and his al-Qaida buddies think that just because the Democrats are in charge, national security is taking an extended vacation,...

President Barack Obama ended his 10-day Hawaiian vacation today , returning to Washington to resume government business after a much-deserved break. Coincidentally, I also ended a 10-day vacation, though admittedly my return was much less noticed. During my time off, I wasn't asked to work or to deal with anything related to my job. I was pretty much able to forget I even HAD a job, much less what it was I had to look forward to when I came back. Obama, on the other hand, had to deal with a national security crisis, on Christmas day of all times. There are no real breaks for the president -- a vacation, something many of us take for granted, can be interrupted at any time for the commander in chief. There has been much criticism made against President Obama regarding his national security credentials. The Christmas plot to take American lives by al Qaeda has been, fairly or not, the latest catalyst for those criticisms, coupled with lingering debates about the president's quali...