President Obama made good on his promise by announcing his plans to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010.

Between 35,000 to 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq for training and logistical support.  They will withdraw gradually until all U.S. forces are out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, the deadline set in the agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year.

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Both the New York Times and the Washington Post, as well as hundreds of news organizations across the country, have wrongly attributed this quote to the Obama administration:

“A midnight rule change by the Bush administration to allow carrying of concealed weapons in the national parks will not have any significant impacts on public health and safety.”

It turns out this statement did not come from the current Justice Department under Obama, but rather from a Department of Interior memo dated November 18, 2008 during the Bush administration.

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CNN political commentator Ed Rollins is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign.

In a new article, Rollins talks about President Obama and his first prime-time news conference Monday night for which 60 million viewers tuned in.

Rollins says a president needs to be a cheerleader sometimes (such as, “you’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie,” as Bush famously told the head of FEMA right before the collapse of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina?)  But right now, what we really need is a truth-teller.  I’ll agree with that.

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CNN’s Jack Cafferty published an excellent column on how Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Democrats are using the same ol’ partisanship to ruin Obama’s mojo.  Here’s a brief excerpt:

“Well, that didn’t take long.  Three weeks into the new administration and the Democrats are squandering their advantage and threatening to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Credit House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for getting the ball rolling.  Under her leadership, House Democrats excluded Republicans from having any voice in crafting the stimulus package.

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Photography was an important part of Abraham Lincoln’s campaign and presidency.  Lincoln was born in 1809 and elected president in 1860.  This was the era when photography was invented and became a mass communications tool.  Lincoln is known as the first U.S. presidential candidate to use photography as a campaign tool and was arguably the most photographed man of his day.  President Obama has frequently cited Lincoln as his inspiration and most revered President.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, the Library of Congress has assembled an impressive collection of rare Lincoln photographs.  The collection spans over 20 years from the first known photo in 1846, through the U.S. presidential campaign of 1860, the Civil War years, to the Lincoln funeral in 1865.

This photo shows Lincoln’s political campaign button for the 1864 presidential election.  It contains a head-and-shoulders portrait of Abraham Lincoln on one side (photo by Matthew B. Brady on Jan. 8, 1864) and a bust portrait of VP candidate Andrew Johnson on the other side.  The photo is mounted in a metal casing with six stars above an ornamental American Flag shield and boughs that give an hourglass shape to the Lincoln portrait.

Abraham Lincoln Photo Collection

See more cool stuff at Net-Cool

A joke floating around the Web in early January 2009, just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama:

In a few short days, an African-American man will move from his private residence into a much larger and infinitely more expensive one owned not by him but by the taxpayers.  A vast lawn, a perimeter fence, and many well trained security specialists will insulate him from the rest of us.  But the mere fact that this man will be residing in this house should make us all stop and count our blessings, because it proves that we live in a nation where anything is possible.

Many believed this day would never come.  Most of us hoped and prayed that it would, but few of us actually believed we would live to see it.  Racism is an ugly thing in all of its forms, and there is little doubt that if this man had moved into this house fifteen years ago, there would have been a great public outcry — possibly even rioting in the streets.  Today we can all be both grateful and proud that no such mayhem will take place when this man takes up residency in this house.

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