I have to admit, when I sat down to write about President Obama's change in America's Cuba policy, the first headline which suggested itself was: "Obama Does Exactly What He Said He Would Do -- Media Stunned." But then, that headline could apply to so many things these days, that I thought I needed to be a bit more specific.

While Obama's change in direction on Cuba is indeed stunning, it is not at all unexpected. Here is Barack Obama from the campaign trail, speaking in Miami last May:

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Tea doesn't get much respect in America. This historical snubbing will continue Wednesday, with protests across America meant to evoke the Boston Tea Party, a seminal event in the foundation of our county. How effective these protests will be is going to be open to interpretation, however.

But first, some sympathy for tea itself. Americans consume far more coffee than tea, and don't even realize that the reason they do so can be traced back to the Boston Tea Party itself. Tea is such a quintessentially English drink that during and after the Revolution, not drinking it was a simple political statement: "We're not British, we're Americans." Even today, tea is held to be somewhat suspect, rather feminine, and not as red-blooded American as drinking coffee. A quick observation of any Denny's in the country at breakfast will confirm the ratio of coffee drinkers to tea drinkers among today's Americans. If you don't believe that patriotic feelings get attached to food, then you must not remember "freedom fries" from a few years back. Such feelings sometimes get so ingrained in society that the reason behind them is lost in time. As happened with tea in America.

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A bumpersticker seen in more liberal areas of the country reads: "Jesus save me from your followers." Now, that may not be a very "Christian" way to open a column which falls on the Christian Good Friday, but I was reminded of it by yet another episode of Catholic leaders denouncing liberal politicians. To these leaders, I have to say, isn't there something about beams and dust motes and eyes which you could be more productively teaching about? Or perhaps that one about throwing the first stone?

The occasion for the outrage this time is Notre Dame -- a Catholic college -- inviting the President of the United States to speak at its graduation ceremony. Outrageous, huh? Some bishops and priests and other Catholic leaders have raised an outcry and, if Obama was Catholic, would no doubt be calling to ban him from taking communion. Their theological logic (ahem) is that since Obama supports the law he swore a holy oath to uphold for all American citizens (the Constitution), he should be shunned by the Catholic community. Yes, it was a "holy" oath, since Obama added the (non-required) words "so help me God" at the end. And yes, abortion rights are part of that law. Meaning that, to the bishops and other leaders, Obama cannot be given the right to speak at a Catholic forum, since he does not follow to the letter the holy laws laid down by the Pope.

To which I have to say: Hypocrites!

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We apologize for today's interruption in service, and are glad to announce that ChrisWeigant.com is back "on the air" (on the wire?).

At approximately 2:30 A.M., someone cut eight "trunk line" fiber optic cables in two different locations in the San Jose, California area, which knocked out phone and internet service for a multi-county area. At this time, nobody seems to know who did this, or why. Four of the cables cut belonged to AT&T, which has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.

Not only was internet service interrupted (the reason for our site being dark all day), but also local phone service (cellular and landline both) was down as well. This led to local failures in emergency (911) services. Meaning anyone with a medical or criminal emergency was simply not able to contact help. Police and fire services did their best, cruising around more than usual, in the hopes that people could flag them down in the event of any emergency.

ATMs and credit card processing were also out for the entire region. Further details at this point are sketchy, at best. So while it is impossible to draw conclusions as to what happened, we can now at least be thankful that the break in the fiber optic cables has been repaired, and can now resume service here at ChrisWeigant.com.

We apologize for the lack of an article today, and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

-- Chris Weigant

It must be tough to be a member of the media class these days. The inside-the-Beltway crowd is getting more and more frustrated with the public's refusal to go along with the storyline they are trying to sell... oh, excuse me, that should read "tell," shouldn't it? They've been beating the drum of President Obama's supposed failure from Day One, but that rascally public keeps right on giving him roughly two-thirds approval ratings. In fact, his approval ratings have just not budged during the entire time.

So pity the poor media, especially those commenting from the right. Their frustration in not being able to control the storyline on Obama's presidency must be giving them fits. Their most recent attempt at finding the gloomy lining in Obama's silver cloud was that he is the "most polarizing president ever!" They focus in like a laser beam on a Pew Research poll which shows, in essence, that the Republican Party is shrinking down to its core base of very conservative people. Party identification and satisfaction with the Republican Party is at an all-time low, so it's not that hard to understand that whoever's left is going to be pretty committed to the cause, because all the moderates have left. But although this is the logical conclusion to draw from the data, some pundits on the right are trying to shoehorn this in to their overarching "Obama is a failure" theme.

They fail to mention that the same poll showed Obama with a 61 percent approval rating, which is more than twice his disapproval rating of 26 percent. Two polls (CNN and CBS) came out a day earlier than Pew which pegged Obama's approval at a stratospheric 66 percent. These numbers do not fit the storyline, so they are not even mentioned.

Instead, the story runs something like this:

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ChrisWeigant.com is proud to announce that our much-beloved resident cartoonist C.W. Cunningham has been honored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, by being featured in their "Jefferson Muzzles" awards column.

Cunningham did not win a Muzzle award, since the "awards" are ignoble in nature, handed out to the most blatant violators of free speech during the past year. The actual award (which was number one on their list) was given jointly to the Democratic and Republican Parties, for their "free speech zones" at last year's national conventions.

Cunningham's cartoon originally ran on this site September 19, 2007, and is reproduced below for your enjoyment:

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Following conventional wisdom, especially in Washington, is often a fool's errand. Groupthink can be wildly wrong, even if "everyone knows..." or "everyone believes..." something to be true. But every now and then, the conventional wisdom turns out to be right. Which may be the case for the punditocracy's predicted doom for cap-and-trade legislation intended to reform America's energy policy. If this proves to be the case, it will be the first major Obama priority to fail in Congress.

This scenario may have a silver lining -- if cap-and-trade is jettisoned, health care reform may actually pass this year. This may seem like apples and oranges, but that is often true with congressional priorities. But, for the first time, Congress is apparently throwing up its hands and admitting that they just can't keep up with President Obama's fast-paced agenda.

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In the world of framing issues (or "political spin," if you prefer), there are a few cardinal rules. One of them is when you are trying to scare people, it helps if the example you use (and the words you choose to describe it) are actually scary.

[I should mention before I get going here that this article's headline has nothing whatsoever to do with the FCC, or radio or television broadcast rules... just so no one winds up disappointed.]

I read a recent opinion article by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, and I found myself actually agreeing with him. This, I should point out, was not his intended purpose (since he's a pretty conservative guy, and I am decidedly not). Because I was agreeing that his "nightmare scenario" actually sounded pretty good. Read it yourself, and see what you think.

Because (are you sitting down), Krauthammer's big bugaboo, his big boogeyman spectre designed to send us all screaming out into the night... is "fairness." America being "fair" is such an awful, frightening, downright terrifying future for our country, that all good citizens should rise up against it. To the barricades! To fight for Unfairness For All!

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Here's a quick quiz: Do you know the difference between England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom? If you do, chances are you are one of my Canadian readers, who assumably learn such things in school.

OK, the whole issue is kind of silly, and is nothing more than an introduction to what I really want to talk about, but I did want to react to the whole tempest in a teacup. Plus, it's Thursday, when I traditionally get a bit disjointed in subject matter. Ahem.

For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, the story is that President Barack Obama is (fill in your own right-wing insult), because when speaking to the press in a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, Obama said "England," when he should have more properly said "the United Kingdom" (to be more inclusive).

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What a morning!

I awoke to the sounds of my clock radio, and of President Obama giving an extraordinary speech across the airwaves. I'll just transcribe what I heard for all of you here, without comment:

I, President Obama, have taken this opportunity to speak to all of America. Because I'd like to make a confession to everyone. While my efforts at reaching out across the aisle in Washington have been mixed, at best, I have to admit that my efforts at reaching out to the mainstream media have been somewhat less successful. So, in order to lay to rest some rumors and downright conspiracy theories, and in a sincere effort to shelter the media from the embarrassment their unfounded stories have undoubtedly caused them, I'd like to come right out and admit a few things to everyone.

To begin with, my Inauguration speech was horrible. Boy, that was an absolute stinker of a speech, huh? About the only thing worse was Aretha Franklin's hat, right? And when I gave the speech, although only a few right-winger pundits picked up on it, when I said I valued "hard work," that was actually code, which hid the fact that I am really a secret conservative.

Yes, it's true. As we all know, liberals never did a stick of work in their lives, and so I was truly speaking to my natural constituency there -- conservatives.

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