Now that we're for months deep into the Obama administration, let's see how the president fared for the month of April, yet again broken down by the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:


The Bad:
1) Failing to get NATO to commit more troops to combat in Afghanistan: As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised that his "new approach" would bring dividends with our allies. In his first European trip as president, he glad-handed with NATO allies and was warmly received, but failed to get anything more than the same nice sounding, but largely empty, promises from NATO leaders on the ...<< MORE >>

The inmates are officially running the asylum in Washington now. Those pillars of black smoke wafting down Constitution Avenue are from the torches lit by the far left Democrats on the Hill have for a partisan witch hunt . Now unencumbered by any shred of fairness or concern for national security, the congressional Democratic leaders are racing to outdo each other in setting up committees to publicly investigate Bush administration and intelligence community officials involved in authorizing "torture" of captured al-Qa'ida terrorists by the CIA. I use "torture" in quotes because the hyperbolic, red-faced allegations by Democratic leaders such as Patrick Leahy, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi—and even President Obama—that the interrogation methods authorized by the Bush administration to use against terrorists constitute torture are beyond laughable; by their definition, anyone who has ever served in the military, or even rushed a fraternity has been tortured. Here's a list of the so-called "torture" techniques detailed by the Senate Armed Services Committee:

- Waterboarding (Yeah, it's uncomfortable and freaks people out, but hundreds of US servicemen get waterboarded in survival training every year)
- Face-slapping (I guess the Three Stooges must have also been torture aficionados)
- Sleep deprivation (Hmm, well I guess thousands of college students are "tortured" every year when they pull all nighters; or for that matter parents are "tortured" by their newborn infants who deny them restful sleep for weeks on end)
- Sitting in uncomfortable positions (has anyone ever been stuck in a crappy government office chair day in and day out?)
- Exposing prisoners to hot and cold temperatures (well anyone who has ever been in the infantry has thus been tortured...)
- Food deprivation (ditto)
- Hooding prisoners during interrogation (reminds me of my fraternity initiation)
- Stripping prisoners naked (ditto)
- Shaving heads and beards (Really? This is torture? Well, by all means, let's go ahead and arrest every military barber)
- Slamming prisoners against walls (what is often omitted from press reports is that prisoners were slammed against false walls that were softer than normal walls and the prisoners were restrained to prevent injury from the impact...and again just like fraternity initiation)

If you like the Stooges, then you must like torture...

It seems that the Armed Services committee omitted the part about the prisoners being struck in the hindquarters with large wooden paddles while being forced to say "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" or being forced to make 3 am runs to 7-11 to pick up hot dogs for the guards at Gitmo. Just as a mental exercise, imagine for a minute if you took someone who survived being in an Iraqi prison under Saddam and asked him whether he would chose being subjected to the American interrogation playbook or Saddam's interrogation playbook, which one would he choose? I can almost imagine the laughter. And let us not forget, these were techniques employed against terrorists who are committed to our destruction.  What's even funnier is that Obama's own Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair admitted in private memo to intelligence employees that the interrogations had yielded "high value information" against al-Qa'ida.

Make no mistake, this is about political retribution, pure and simple. And Nancy Pelolsi and the rest of the Democratic leadership are committed to press forward with their "Truth Commissions" (read: show trials) to villify the Bush administration, no matter what the cost to national security by revealing to all the world—including our enemies—how our nation conducts intelligence operations and what the government will and will not do to captured terrorists. As a candidate, President Obama promised to "reach across the aisle," but that appears to be an empty promise as he appears to be content to just stand idly by while these partisan witch hunts move forward. This is worse than politics as usual, this is just outright shameful. The American people should be outraged at this abuse of power and, even worse, the endangerment of American national security.

UPDATE (4/23/2009):
An unnamed Congressional staffer leaked to the media today an outline of how Speaker Pelosi's Truth Commission will be implemented:

        

I realize I'm coming a little late to the game on this, but it just still irritates me that the White House can still insist that President Obama didn't bow to the Saudi king at the G-20 conference. It just insults our intelligence.

A picture's worth a thousand words, see for yourself:

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OK, we are now three months deep into the Obama administration. So here's a look at the administration's track record for March, breaking it down by the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Good:
1) Committing to the war in Afghanistan: Even though President Obama refuses to acknowledge that Iraq has been a success, he has chosen to commit to the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al-Qa'ida and has endorsed a strategy that worked in Iraq—more troops and seeking to win over local tribal leaders to fight against the terrorists. Obama's public announcement of the new strategy and commitment of additional troops sends the message that he has taken ownership of this war and is committed to victory, which should be commended. Obama is correct, as was President Bush, in saying that we cannot allow Afghanistan to fail and that the Taliban and al-Qa'ida must be defeated both in Afghanistan but also in neighboring Pakistan. Failure would be disastrous. I just hope that the White House doesn't cave to the doves in the president's own party on the Hill who lack a commitment to victory against the forces of radical Islam in that region. Still, President Obama needs to stop bringing partisanship into the Afghan war at a time when he is seeking bipartisan unity behind the campaign and refrain from continually taking cheapshots at President Bush like he did when rolled out his Afghan strategy, claiming that Bush took his eye off the ball in Afghanistan and the Bush administration's strategy in Afghanistan was wrong, when in reality Obama's "new" strategy is largely an enhancement of strategy shifts undertaken by President Bush late in his second term, such as increasing US troops and stepping up Predator strikes against al-Qa'ida in Pakistan. All the same, Obama does deserve praise for taking a strong stand on Afghanistan.

2) Advocating merit pay for teachers: For the first time, the Obama administration appears to have stood up to a union, albeit not as powerful a union as others, such as the UAW. Still, merit pay is a good idea for improving our public schools—so long as it is applied correctly and not allowed to be manipulated by the teachers' unions.

3) Finally talking in positive terms about the economy: I think the light bulb went on somewhere in the White House and someone realized that all the statements by the president and his representatives that the economy was doomed and may not recover only made the markets drop even more because it scared people away from investing at the exact time that the White House should be encouraging investment.  Here's an example, from an AP article:

"Just a week ago [the first week of March], White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag declared that "fundamentally, the economy is weak." Days later, Obama told reporters he was confident in the economy."

But now, the White House has finally gotten its act together and started speaking positively about the economy, stating that the "fundamentals of the economy are sound." About time. Of course, if the president dropped his proposal for increasing the capital gains tax, that might inspire even more investor confidence...



Bad:
1) Committing to $900 million in aid to the Palestinian territories: Secretary of State Hilary Clinton promised $900 million in assistance from the United States at a conference of donors in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. Of this, $300 million in humanitarian aid would go to the Gaza strip through international agencies, including the UN, which has done a poor job in the past of preventing siphoning of aid by HAMAS. Moreover, the provision of aid benefits the HAMAS government in Gaza and alleviates the need for it to fund social services and reconstruction, thereby allowing the terrorist organization to spend more money on weapons to use against Israel and pay its thugs. To be fair, the Palestinian situation is a delicate one, but this provision of aid without any demands made of the HAMAS regime in Gaza seems plainly counterproductive.

2) Relying on Russia to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program: At the beginning of the month, the Obama administration apparently made a behind the scenes deal with Moscow to get Russia to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment in exchange for concessions on planned US missile defense deployments in Eastern Europe. This flat out just won't work and smacks of naivete. Russia has been a persistent problem in the Iranian nuclear issue from the start—it has been supplying nuclear technology to Tehran for decades and former president, now prime minister, Putin has made no secret of his desire to curtail US influence in the Middle East. There is no reason to believe that Moscow will change course and suddenly become a genuine partner in compelling Iranian disarmament. Iran simply has no intention of abandoning its nuclear weapons program and Russia has no interest in actually stopping it.

3) Initiating a costly, and likely inefficient, government health care plan and selling it as a solution to our economic problem: Spending more than $600 billion as a "down payment" on a government health care plan—with sketchy details—that is likely to total some $2 trillion seems like an economic disaster in the making when the current spending initiatives have already pushed the budget deficit to nearly $2 trillion. And what about the quality of the healthcare? I'm sure everyone has been to the DMV and seen what a debacle that place is. Now imagine the same quality customer service administering your healthcare...

4) Signing a massive omnibus spending bill chalked full of earmarks: Despite President Obama's passionate condemnation of earmarks  and pork-barrel politics on the campaign trail, he reversed himself by signing a $410 billion spending bill that some 8,000 earmark spending projects, totaling somewhere between $5.5 billion. More disappointing was the White House's defense of the bill and earmarks. First, administration officials justified the bill by claiming it was "last year's business," as if that made the bill exempt from the need to eliminate wasteful earmark spending. Then came the tap dance as Obama signed the bill while simultaneously promising earmark reform, yet at the same time also defending earmarks by saying:

"Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts. And that's why I've opposed their outright elimination."

So he's opposed to wasteful earmarks, except when he's not. But then Obama sought to trivialize the earmark spending, saying that it only represented about 1 percent of the spending bill, glossing over the fact that it is still at least $5.5 billion—including $8.5 million in earmarks that had been sought last year by current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. So I guess the public shouldn't be concerned about wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money on such important projects as $900,000 for equipment for a planetarium in Chicago (courtesy of Emanuel) or $1.8 million to study odor from pig manure (courtesy of Democratic Senator Tom Harkin). I tell you what, something smells like manure.

5) Snubbing our closest ally: Great Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a state visit to Washington to meet the new American president, but President Obama snubbed him by refusing to hold a joint press conference or a formal dinner with the prime minister, as is standard protocol. Administration officials said that the president was "too tired"  To add insult to injury, President Obama disrespected his British colleague by presenting him with a stack of Hollywood movies on DVD that could have been bought a convenience store, demonstrating an obvious lack of careful consideration, whereas Brown had given Obama personalized gifts such as a pen holder made from a Royal Navy vessel that once fought to end the Atlantic slave trade. British officials in the prime minister's office made known their ire at the impolite reception by the White House. This quote from the London Telegraph says it all:

A British official conceded that the furore surrounding the apparent snub to Mr Brown had come as a shock to the White House. "I think it's right to say that their focus is elsewhere, on domestic affairs. A number of our US interlocutors said they couldn't quite understand the British concerns and didn't get what that was all about."

Add to this the fact that in one of his first gestures as president, Obama sent back to the British Embassy a bronze bust of Winston Churchill—one of Britain's most revered leaders—that had been presented to President Bush by Prime Minister Tony Blair as a symbol of the two countries' solidarity in opposing dictatorship. All together, this is just a flat-out embarrassment for not just the White House, but for all Americans, since the president is the face that America puts forth to the world. It is ironic that Obama lambasted Bush quite loudly during the campaign for "alienating" our allies, but meanwhile proceeds to offend our closest ally. It shows either a neglect for foreign affairs by the president or a dangerous naiveté.

6) Proposing an ill-considered plan to make veterans pay for their own health care: President Obama's proposal to bill veterans' private insurance companies for the costs of their treatment, in a short-sighted bid to save $540 million, was a disaster in all senses of the word. Because the plan would have effectively made veterans pay for their own healthcare—including for line of duty injuries—it evoked a firestorm of criticism from both sides of the aisle, veterans' groups, and the public, and undermined Obama's campaign pledge to improve care for veterans. Moreover, the timing of this proposal coincided with revelations that AIG was going to pay some $200 million in bonuses to its executives after having received billions in taxpayer money. So trying to save a few bucks by squeezing veterans while throwing billions at financial institutions who pay their execs hundreds of millions in bonuses and only a month after allocating hundreds of billions of taxpayer money on questionable "stimulus" projects looked even worse. The president wisely retracted the plan after vigorous public and congressional opposition, but it never should have been proposed in the first place. Whatever White House staffer thought that it was a good idea should be queueing up in the unemployment line.

7) Dropping the "War on Terror:" The Obama administration has quietly killed the War on Terror in the government vernacular, While the War on Terror was actually somewhat of a misnomer, since terrorism is simply a strategy of our true adversary, radical Islamists, the administration has further obscured the stakes by replacing the term with confusing and empty empty euphemisms, such as "Overseas Contingency Operation." Well, what exactly are we fighting? This only makes the issue more confusing for the general public, which at least could generally comprehend the admittedly flawed War on Terror concept. Personally, I think it is part of an intentional effort by the new administration to quietly shut down the fight against Islamic extremists in a manner that is so gradual and subtle that the public won't even realize it until it is all over.

8) Blaming the US for Mexico's internal drug violence: When Hilary Clinton went to Mexico last month, she publicly stated that the United States shared the blame for the rampant violence committed by drug cartels and gangs in Mexico. While the secretary of state is correct that the demand for drugs in the US does motivate drug cartels to move their merchandise from South America through Mexico into the US, the reason why cartels are so powerful and able to operate so freely in Mexico is largely because of the failings of the Mexican government, not America, such as rampant corruption of federal and local officials in law enforcement and the government and the failure of the government to assert its authority in border areas to stem the power of gangs and organized criminal syndicates that have thrived for decades by smuggling people, drugs and what not into the US. Moreover, Mrs. Clinton's statement that 90 percent of the guns used by Mexican criminals in their murderous activities come from the US is belied by the truth—only about 17 percent of guns seized from Mexican criminals come from the US, and many of those guns were shipped to the Mexican military as part of US assistance to Mexico. This obsequious blame America first approach might play well to foreign audiences who wish to deny their own culpability but it is maddening for Americans and a distortion of the truth. Moreover, when has the Mexican government ever apologized for the millions of illegal immigrants that it allows to flow across the border into the US every year who have contribute to higher crime rates in the US and drain our social welfare programs?

Ugly:
1) Engaging in ugly partisanship: Rahm Emanuel and other top administration officials opened fire on Republicans early in the month by accusing Rush Limbaugh of being the voice of the Republican Party, which it is clear he is not—which is acknowledged by even people in the center and center-left, as in Politico. So much for Obama's promise to be above partisanship—although I guess that went out the window already when the president not so subtly bashed President Bush during his innauguration speech (it is not the norm for an incoming president to speak ill of his predecessor in his innaugural address) and with the bitterly partisan approach taken by the president in promoting the stimulus bill, which was rammed through Congress with only three Republicans supporting the measure. Big surprise, it's politics as usual.    

2) Continuing to blame President Bush for the economic crisis: Throughout the month and a full two months into his presidency, Obama continued to try to pass the buck on the economy by continually claiming in public that the problems facing the country were the fault of the Bush administration. That just doesn't hold water anymore, especially after the stock market has plummeted since Obama took office and the president's monstrous spending bills have pushed the annual federal deficit to $2 trillion. The American public wants action, not blame-shifting.

3) The AIG bonus embarassment: Once it became known that AIG—after receiving billions in federal bailout money—would be paying its execs some $200 million in bonuses, the public was rightly outraged. And the White House looked like a deer in the headlights trying to manage the PR blowback. The president claimed to be "stunned" that AIG would be paying huge bonuses, despite the fact that his Treasury Department apparently contacted Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd to insert language into the bailout bill to allow bonuses to be paid (the Chris Dodd affair was its own entertaining sideshow as he first denied knowing about the language in the bill and then subsequently diming out the Treasury Department). Then Congress, at the White House's urging, passed a bill of dubious legality to tax the AIG bonuses at a 90% rate. The whole bonus debacle was just downright embarassing and didn't exactly inspire confidence in the public that the administration knows what it's doing when it comes to the economy.

        

With February now in our rear view mirror, let's take a look at the Obama administration's balance sheet for the month:

The Good:

The Bad:

The Ugly:
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This gave me a laugh tonight when I read it: Official: Obama wants to halve budget deficit

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama wants to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term, mostly by scaling back Iraq war spending,
raising taxes on the wealthiest and streamlining government, an
administration official said Saturday as the president worked to
finalize his first budget request.

Obama's
proposal for the ...<< MORE >>