Could it be that Glenn Beck has a point?

Then Beck played a clip of Obama:

Juan Cole notes that the president of the Iranian de facto police state has proclaimed the 9/11 attacks were a "big lie", joining the ranks of the Truthers. Quote:

"Success has many fathers while failure is an orphan."

Or something like that. It looks like there is a growing number of parentless Obama White House aides, both current and former. Rahm Emanuel is looking more and more beleaguered, despite Dana Milbank's best efforts to rehabilitate him. The NYT:

John Hawkins has five ugly truths, and they are:

(1) Entitlements must be cut.
(2) Our military is going to weaken.
(3) Taxes are going up.
(4) Economic growth is going to stagnate.
(5) We will have a world where the United States isn't a super power.

I take issue on #5, because I think we'll have a world where the US isn't the only super power. The first four sound about right.

While trying to better understand the Taliban, David Rohde of the New York Times put himself at risk and was kidnapped by Taliban insurgents. He was held hostage for eight months, then escapted. His experience puts him in a unique position, as seen in his review of two books on the subject. Here are some of his observations:

He's sort of like an Obama. But with experience. And he might throw his hat in for a 2012 presidential run.

Here's the situation. You have a high school that sucks and an economy that sucks, so what do you do when you have to choose the least worst out of four tough choices? If you're a teacher's labor union, you play hardball in negotiations (thus leaving the school district no other option but to fire all of the teachers in the high school), then mount really loud protests about the unfairness of it all. The essence here:

Guess not. Scott Brown was the most famous GOP vote, but there were four others (Snowe, Collins, Voinovich, Bond), allowing the beleaguered Ben Nelson to vote "nay" without consequence. In this environment, it's enough to call it bipartisan. All those Republicans, bad faith in every one of them.

He may be a shadow of the player he was, and he probably won't hit a lot of homers or have a great batting average this season, but every time I think of Ken Griffey, Jr. in a Mariner uniform, a smile comes to my face. He's a great guy to have around. When it becomes all too obvious that his playing days are over, I hope our very capable GM keeps him on as a coach, somewhere somehow. With Junior and the addition of Cliff Lee, I have a glimmer of hope that my beloved M's can win a pennant this year.

Stipulated. Republicans have been obstructing Obamacrats from passing their agenda, early and often. But these things don't happen in a vacuum. Congressfolk want to stay in office, which means that if they don't abide by the wishes of a majority of their constituents, they'll likely lose to The Other Guy in the next cycle. This is Politics 101, but it explains why the GOP is obstructing so much, and doing so successfully. Put simply, the people don't want what Obama, Pelosi and Reid are selling. The public mood on Obamacare: