Since taking office president Obama has swiftly implemented a plethora of initiatives which can be characterized as featuring profound differences in direction, policy and processes. Differences not just from the previous administration, but different from anything undertaken in the United States ever before. Different not just to shake things up, but different to set things off. New directions to address new concerns. And much of it designed so that the debates and subsequent responses will require in-depth review of many assumptions and beliefs that underlie much of our present political policies.

The entire portfolio of initiatives being addressed has been expertly positioned and focused under three top level issues - The Economy, health care, and Education. This is marketing mastery, as it sets forth a platform for communicating news, issues, and accomplishments in easy to comprehend sound bites that feature unprecedented clarity and relevance to elites, everyday Americans, and the world.

With a backdrop of record unemployment, declining retail and housing sales, and global economic upheaval the Obama administration has attacked status quo thinking and policy across a broad array of policy areas. At least that's how it looks. While there is evidence of change in economic policy, foreign policy and approaches to health care - there is more evidence of compromise that waters down the change that is needed.

With the process of going through the budget line by line in full swing, the President uses his Weekly Address to give some examples, big and small, of how the Administration is working to cut costs and eliminate waste.

The Justice Department released detailed memos describing
harsh interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday.
President Obama stated that C.I.A. operatives who carried out the
techniques would not be prosecuted.

» View The Memos

Jon Stewart blasts CNBC for its blatantly awful financial coverage throughout the economic crisis. This segment captures the inherent dangers when the opinions of insiders is promoted as credible information. Moral of the story - don't ask the fox what happened to the hens.The real shame is that credible business and market analysts like Howard Kurtz and Steven Pearlstein with the Washington Post, and New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson who have warned of the coming crisis for months go unheard and unseen on these programs. Maybe now these prudent journalists with records of accuracy will be sought after. Somehow though I doubt it. They are presented here so you can seek them out for yourself.

After the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.

Read the Newsweek article...