By Dave Lindorff

The way I see it, President Obama has a couple of months to turn his failing administration around.

The war in Afghanistan is going south, and within a couple of weeks,
his General William Westmoreland, Gen. Stanley McCrystal, will be
coming to him asking for more troops. Things are getting hairier in
Iraq too.

His signature health care initiative is foundering, with Republicans working in lockstep to see to it that it fails.

Pressure is mounting for an honest probe into the criminality of the
prior administration in its authorization and promotion of torture
against captives--most of them innocent--in the Bush/Cheney "war" on
terror.

By Dave Lindorff

Some critics have written, in response to my article
calling for extension of the single-payer plan called Medicare to all
Americans, that actually Medicare is a badly flawed program that leaves
America's elderly without coverage for many important health services,
and which requires them to pay for supplemental insurance, or to go on
Medicaid, too.

Since Twitter and Facebook are being taken down by cyber-attacks today, it seems like a good time to survey the increasing use of social networks by politicians and candidates for political office. Let's use the developing 2010 election for Senator from North Carolina as an example.

In 2010, John Thune will face his first re-election campaign since unseating Tom Daschle in 2004. His seat is considered one of the safest of all incumbent Republicans. This is helped along by the fact that he has no challenger in sight.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

She has represented Illinois' liberal 9th District on Chicago's north side in Congress since 1999. She has been a bold, outspoken Progressive Caucus member and is vice chair of the bipartisan Women's Caucus. Jan Schakowsky serves in the House leadership as Chief Deputy Democratic Whip and serves on the Steering and Policy Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, the Subcommittee on Health, and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Should she give up all that to run for Obama's, and now Roland Burris', Senate seat?

READ THE REST AT BUZZFLASH

(UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg)

By Dave Lindorff

President Barack Obama was so obviously pleased to have five-term
Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announce that he was
switching party affiliation and joining the Democratic Party that the
president missed an opportunity to make sure that his new BFF in the
Senate was also a backer of the issues that Obama ran on in the
presidential campaign.

Indeed, while President Obama was quick to offer Sen. Specter his
backing and even to offer to help him with fund-raising in his quest
for re-election in 2010, he said nothing at all about any quid-pro-quo.

This is not only unfortunate. It is irresponsible.

Jim Bunning is a daily laugh-fest. Man, I sure hope the Republicans don't shove him out with a primary!! It is going to be so much fun running against Kentucky's "Crazy Uncle". It seems every time this man opens his mouth, his foot is inserted within.

Now the latest, as reported by Ben Carter at Bluegrass Roots seems to be that Mr. Bunning, and one of his potential replacements, Sleepy the Dwarf David Williams may have violated campaign financing laws to help hold on to state Senate seats last year. And of course, most eccentric Jim Bunning may have let the cat out of the bag by what he does best, a slip of the tongue. From Ben's post at Bluegrassroots:

Ah, those wonderful Kentucky Republican Christian Values!! We all know that the Kentucky Republican Party represents the most greedy and least patriotic among us, but this story takes the cake. Not being merely content during Christmastime to try and cost millions of middle-class jobs American workers have fought for, it seems that former pitcher, and slightly deranged Senator Jim Bunning has set up a Non-Profit charity to avoid taxes that profits, well Jim Bunning!! You gotta love the Republican spirit of giving!!

The Lexington Herald-Leader has this charming story of the selflessness of Kentucky Republicans:

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., set up a charitable foundation in 1996, the year he entered baseball's Hall of Fame. Every year since, he has been the fund's biggest recipient.