The Hollywood Liberal

Big changes coming to Obama’s Asia team
Several senior Obama administration Asia officials are scheduled to either leave government or move to new jobs within the bureaucracy in the coming months, as the White House tries to hit the reset button on U.S.-China relations.

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Ezra Klein: A very smart speech by Speaker Boehner
If you spent the afternoon watching C-SPAN, as I did, you heard applause. A lot of it. Over and over again. And when John Boehner took the podium to be sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives, it swelled back up, and stayed there. No one Republican member of Congress wants to be the f…

Boehner elected House speaker as 112th Congress convenes
Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), taking the gavel Wednesday as the new speaker of the House, promised to work for fiscal responsibility while offering “openness” to the chamber’s Democratic minority.

Political Bookworm: Novel on Obama stirs buzz
Its publisher is remaining tight-lipped, but the buzz is building around a forthcoming novel about the Obama administration. Other than its Jan. 25 publication date, little is known about “O: A Presidential Novel” ¿ including who wrote it.

The Way Out of Afghanistan
Ahmed Rashid, New York Review of Books
For the 100,000 American forces, 40,000 NATO troops, and their commander, General David Petraeus, it’s Year One of the Surge in Afghanistan. For many Afghans it’s Year Nine of the US Occupation—or, to be kind, Year Nine of the US-led war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.US officers say that the war is finally on the right footing, with enough men and equipment to hammer the Taliban in their bases in the south. For US and European diplomats there are larger imponderables.

GOP Plans to Act Fast to Undo Obama’s Agenda
Paul Kane, Wash Post
Almost as soon as they take control of the House at noon Wednesday, Republicans will embark on a 20-day plan aimed at undoing major aspects of President Obama's agenda as they seek to take advantage of the weeks before the Senate's return and the president's State of the Union address.The first move will come Friday, when the House begins the process of repealing the new health-care law. House leaders will then quickly begin to identify tens of billions of dollars in proposed spending cuts and to ease regulations that businesses find burdensome.

Pomp, and Little Circumstance from Republicans

A Public Voice for Private Virtue
Tony Blankley, Washington Times
As we begin a new year, it may be useful to look back to one particular piece of advice that George Washington gave us in his farewell address. In paragraph 28, he reminded us that: “It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?” Receive news alertsHis point was that no matter how well designed our constitutional mechanisms may be,…

Freshmen Lawmakers Bring Business Resumes