Bill Maher isn't always right and isn't always funny, but I'm always glad when a new New Rules video is posted! Thanks Norm!

I'm glad Bill Maher is starting to take this stance on Obama, I thought and hoped he might. Barack's honeymoon is over, as Flight of the Conchords say: It's business time.

It wasn't very funny, but it was very true. Obama has been a total push over on all things important. His stance on torture has been laughable. He "closed" Guantanamo but is keeping everyone there while expanding Bagram. He's "decreasing" troop numbers in Iraq while keeping private contractors there. He's escalating Afghanistan and bombing Pakistan. He's continuing the heist of taxpayer dollars by Wall Street while offing little if any useful change in regulation.

Even on social issues he's been useless. http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/obama-administration-and-doma

It's about time someone called him out on this. I don't care to hear another thing about his taste for mustard, his dog, his dates, his smoking, his basketball skills, his religion, his "coolness" or any of that crap. I want to hear about him fighting for the change our country needs.

I've been lukewarm on the new rules segments for most of the season but this one was right on. If anything Maher was too forgiving of Obama.

Media theorist Robert McChesney's work contends the the "media is a governmentally sanctioned oligopoly, owned by a few highly profitable corporate entities" and I would contend that Obama is as much a marketing product as toothpaste.

After the election Noam Chomsky stated the following of the President Elect: "every year, the advertising industry gives a prize to the best marketing campaign of the year. This year, Obama won the prize. Beat out Apple company. The best marketing campaign of 2008. Which is correct, it is essentially what happened."

The platform he ran on wasn't change but rather more of the same. We all got what we voted for.

He had Chris Matthews and P.J. O’Rourke on as guests. Are there two guys less deserving of a voice in American culture? I swear, between the two of them they haven’t had a coherent idea in the last ten years. It’s not even like either of the two twits is telegenic. Now Matthews calls himself a liberal. Sorry, if you were a supporter of that war at any stage of the game you shouldn’t get to speak ever again. So they got the war all wrong but what have they ever been right about?

PJ is still mouthing on and on about the evils of big government and hawking his new book about the glory of the automobile—the biggest mistake of the 20th century. Matthews is too busy sticking his wet finger in the air to see which way the prevailing wind of opinion is blowing to have much of a take on anything. Why can’t they find someone who actually might have something to say instead of handing the microphone over to the usual group of dullards? To answer my own question I suppose it’s because a real idea would take too long to explain.

I'm sorry, Bill, but anyone who thinks that Obama was going to pursue actual healthcare reform wasn't paying attention during the campaign...

Obama is doing exactly what he promised during the campaign, and - even if you think he SHOULD do something else - you should not expect him to, or be disappointed if he doesn't. Also, it doesn't mean that 24hr presence in the news requires him to spend 24hrs filming. Fortunately, Obama does NOT control the media, so can't really control the time he's on TV, either. Networks are only showing what they thing average Joe wants to see, and it's Obama's burger. And they are probably right.