While those are some important issues and I have followed them somewhat, here are my thoughts on them.

1) Iran's troubles
2) North Korean threat
3) Obama pushing his health care agenda
4) Obama pushing congress to pass the climate bill by Friday

1) I have to agree with Obama on this. Leave them to their own for the time being. Keep the world watching and offer support when time is right otherwise we will just look like "Busy Bodies".
The old adage "clean your own door step before you try to clean your neighbors door step" applies here.

2) We ain't gonna do anything. Obama doesn't have the heart or the courage to do anything .

3) That ain't gonna happen.

4) OK you got me on that one. I haven't really delved into the news regarding that.

Here are my thoughts...

1) About Iran, no I don't think Obama should support either candidate, but he should still have made a statement to discourage the violence against the protesters.

2) He needs to take a stance against N Korea.

3) Health care - I dunno, he's pushing awful hard.

4) Congress is making deals left and right to try and get the climate bill passed. The bill as of today is a bloated 1200 pages, due to all the amendments and stuff that's been tacked on. I'm sure by Friday it will double in size and all the politicians that were opposed will suddenly vote for it, because their chunk of pork got added in. I see the same thing happening with the health care bill.

And this has what to do with a weekly address?

Double standard.

If I were this far off topic I'd have my response edited.

#4 At Obama's press conference on the bill not one question was asked about it. No one is paying attention.

#3 There's a very strong debate going on between the bought and paid for conservative Dems and the bought and paid for Dems that are up for re election. Baucus who heads finance went for a long weekend fishing and golfing on the Yellowstone with Insurance and Pharma lobyists. Who needs Republicans when there are plenty of corrupt Democrates to go around.

Consistant polling shows 3/4 of the American people want a government plan to compete with private insurance. The insurance industry and pharma are terrified of competition and are pouring money into senatorial campaign funds.

#2 Stance taken already, what next. Got any ideas? Start a war perhaps?

#1 I guess that speach in Cairo maybe did some good. Better to encourage moderates than start wars? How about that election upset in Lebanon? Good thing Mr. "bomb bomb Iran" didn't win.

Expatriate is away sulking and plotting to leave the Union from an undisclosed igloo.

Indeed my friend, continually crying the sky is falling.

Actually, expatriate has been away helping his son get his first black bear -- and teaching him to stand over his kill and defend it from another bear. Once we had the bear down, the place turned into Fort Apache and we had to keep two bears off us. The hide's at the tannery and the meat's being processed now.

Yes, I am all that is man.

Alas, though...it seems that it's becoming unfashionable to believe that you should be able to keep what you work for, or that you should stand up against aggression.

Here's what I think:

1) Obama's going to screw it up. He was right to keep us out of it, because Iran's mullahs would like nothing better than to externalize the issue and blame the protests on the Great Satan. However, rather than follow an internal compass (which Democrats apparently aren't equipped with), he'll follow polls that say people want him to take stronger action. So he'll jump in too early and give the mullahs what they want.

2) Obama's going to screw it up. Don't rattle a saber unless you're willing to use it. He tried that before the missile launch awhile back, and then did nothing. After all the bluster now, he's going to do nothing. Saber rattling followed by nothing is worse than doing nothing in the first place, because the only thing people respect less than a coward is one that talks trash while he's chickening out. North Korea's Juche philosophy stresses self-reliance, and economic sanctions only feed it. The only thing Kim Jong Il fears is force. And he's cranked his agenda into high gear because he smells weakness. In the end, Obama's weakness and indecision will possibly lead Japan to start rearming for fear that the US doesn't have its back anymore. If that happens, the Western Pacific will become a far bigger powder keg than it already is.

3) I'm waiting for the dire emergency that will be used to sell the health care bill. Everything else he's pushed has been accomplished by some desperate condition that had to be resolved RIGHT NOW to avoid catastrophe. I expect health care to be no different. They'll spin it in such a way that it has to be jammed through fast, and that if you question it you're un-American.

4) Climate bill? Who cares about the climate? Anybody else notice how that's fallen off the plate? Who's going to buy carbon credits when they're worried about their bills? This probably increases its chances of going through -- less opposition.

No doubt the other two bears were democrats

BREAKING NEWS FLASH Emergency here already. Of course if you are one of the roughly 30% who already recieve taxpayer funded health care it wouldn't seem like such an emergency.

BREAKING NEWS FLASH: Americans currently have better health care than they've ever had.

You got me there Expatriate, can't imagine where I ever got the idea that there was some kind of health care problem in the US. Think of me next time you go to the doctor and I'll be thinking of you next time I pay taxes.

Think of me the next time you condone the murder of an American soldier on the streets of Arkansas, and I'll think of you the next time I'm on the line in the AOR.