Tell us something we didn't know. Rather than make peace with the conservative-minded network, Barack Obama's White House advisors declined to end their feud with Fox News, and instead decided to fuel the fire on the Sunday talk show circuit.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told rival cable TV news channel CNN's "State of the Union" that Obama considers Fox News "not a news organization so much as it has a perspective." Compared with other news outlets, "that's a different take", Emanuel added.

Another Obama political advisor, David Axelrod, hit up ABC where he told "This Week" that Fox News "is really not news. It's pushing a point of view."

Last week, White House communications director Anita Dunn claimed:

"Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."

Fox News, of course, reacted quite strongly to the White House accusations.

Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said in a statement:

"Surprisingly, the White House continues to declare war on a news organization instead of focusing on the critical issues that Americans are concerned about like jobs, health care and two wars."

According to the Washington Post, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 announced back in March. The latest surge has not been announced by Obama, and the additional troops primarily consist of support forces including engineers, medical personnel, military police, and intelligence experts.

With the unannounced 13,000, that will bring the increase that Obama has approved to send to Afghanistan to 34,000. It comes at the same time Obama is considering a request from General Stanley McChrystal, a top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for more combat, training and support troops. There are several options to weigh, including one for 40,000 additional forces.

An unnamed defense official told the paper, "Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000."

The paper did note, however, that the maximum number of US service members expected in the war-torn country by year's end - 68,000 - would remain the same.

On Sept. 17, 2009, President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to the parents of Army Staff Sgt. Jared C. Monti for "conspicuous gallantry." Monti, 30, was serving with the 10th Mountain Division when he was killed in a battle at Gowardesh, Afghanistan.

This was the sixth occasion since Sept. 11, 2001, that the nation's highest award has been presented. Some believe, however, the number of recipients is too low. In the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010, the Department of Defense came under fire for setting decoration standards too high. Still, regardless of political pressure and changing definitions in popular media, the department has held fast to its own definition of the word "hero," which has stood the test of time.

Oh, how I do love being right. I predicted to some of my political wonk friends that Obama’s winning of the presidency would cause an increase (perhaps even of significant proportions) in the number of young people — especially young people of color and women — seeking careers in politics. It seems as if my prediction turned out to be accurate: Sixty-two individuals, a record number, filed to run for a seat on Cleveland’s City Council this year, and I’m hearing similar stories — admittedly anecdotal, no scientific study has been done that I’m aware of — from acquaintances that live in urban areas around the country.

One new local candidate was Lincoln High School student Lynette Cintron, the daughter of a former city councilman Nelson Cintron. She was a mere 17-years-old, and filed to take on an experienced and able incumbent in Matt Zone. While she probably had zero chance of winning the contest (she dropped out of the race last week), she undoubtedly has been tutored by her father that running and losing still gains her name recognition that can be used in future, more winnable, contests.

If there is anything that has become abundantly clear it’s that Southerners, especially Republican Southerners, can’t cope with the fact that we elected a black President. The Civil War, folks, is NOT the past.

We can see it over and over again. That’s what the “liar” scream of the South Carolinian representative was all about. Wonder that he didn’t bring a Confederate flag to wave. That’s what the crazy Texas talk about succession is all about. And Gov. Tim Plenty played a similar theme.

Maybe somebody should start a boycott on travel south of Washington, D. C. See how they like that.

However, that’s not what I want to say.

There is talk that our former Mayor, former Governor and now Sen. George Voinovich might be one of two or three Republicans that will vote for a health reform bill desired by President Barack Obama.

In a way, it would be fitting for Voinovich as he ends his elective political career. He could a blow not only for fair health reform but against the bigots. There have been hints about Voinovich voting for the bill. However, he has teased on such issues only to draw back to the Right.

A vote with President Obama might help erase a mark he hates on his record.

What a pitiful week for the once proud United States of America. Hopefully when we look back at this time many years from now, we will see that the parents not allowing their children to listen to a President's address to schoolchildren and Joe Wilson who disrupted Barack Obama as the apex of divisiveness that has torn us apart during this tumultuous decade. At least we had a bright spot as The Beatles' attempt to take out us out of the doldrums with their remastered works and a video game that will attempt to cheer up a country in need of a lift. The Republican party should particularly take heed of John Lennon's song Come Together and stop all the bickering.

Members of the GOP will quickly play the blame game with the Democrats, declaring that it was their party that started it all. Correct me if I am mistaken, but the vocal minority a few years back were correct in their assertion that there would be no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and by entering in such a war it would be a quagmire for our great military. The loss of civil liberties with the passage of the Patriot Act helped take the USA back 200 years. The Bush policy was so bad that even Dick Cheney has been attempting to distance himself from such a pathetic track record.

President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening, which turned out to be anything but run-of-the-mill. Around 8:40pm, just after Obama vowed to lawmakers that his health care reform proposals would not provide benefits to illegal immigrants, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted from his fifth row seat: "You lie!"

Naturally, most of Congress was stunned at Wilson's outburst.. Mumurs of "ooh" filled the chamber, and Nancy Pelosi's chin dropped in awe. Obama tried to ignore it, moving on to the next sentence and talking about how no federal money would be used to fund abortion. Again he was interupted. This time Wilson shouted out "Not true!"

Health care reform has become a hot button issue this summer. Town hall meetings across the country devolved into protests about granny killing and so-called "death panels." It's become so divisive that guns were even brought to various Obama appearances, and a fanatical pastor in Arizona has proclaimed that he is praying for Obama's death.

No one, however, could have expected an elected Congressional representative to behave in such a manor, breaking unspoken established rules of decorum practiced here.

Radical Arizona pastor Steven Anderson previously received national attention when he dedicated an entire sermon to "Why I hate Barack Obama.". One of his parishioners also caught media attention when e brougt an AR-15 to a protest outside of a speech delivered by President Obama. He called Obama a "murderer" and "socialist devil", and said "I'm not going to pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell." Due to the content of his sermons, a CNN analylst last week said that he had likely been visited by Secret Service agents. Instead of backing off or facing into obscurity, Anderson decided to step up his game.

On Sunday, Anderson decided not to apologize or retract his inflammatory remarks. Instead, he said:

I hope that God strikes Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy. You know, and I hope it happens today.

Anderson is a pastor at Faithful Word Baptist church in Phoenix, Arizona, which he founded in 2005.

You can view the video footage right here:

In an interview broadcast on "Fox News Sunday", former Vice President Dick Cheney revealed that he and George W. Bush disagreed on some key national security policy decisions. Amongst the issues of disagreement were waterboarding, Iran, and North Korea, amongst others.

Cheney said:

"The fact of the matter is, he encouraged me to give him my view on a whole range of issues. I did. Sometimes he agreed. Sometimes he did not. That was true from the very beginning of the administration."

One of the issues they disagreed on was Cheney supported taking military action against Iran's nuclear program, however Bush wanted to try to engage Iranian leaders first. Cheney commented:

"It was not my decision to make. The president made the decision and, obviously, we pursued the diplomatic avenues."

Earlier reports in the media also said that Cheney and Bush did not see eye to eye on other issues. Cheney was said to disagree with Bush's decision to stop waterboarding terror suspects, and also disagreed with the president on whether to pursue diplomatic talks with North Korea. However, Cheney and Bush were said to agree on closing secret prisons where interrogators have greater latitude to question terror suspects than at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. Asked directly about these in the interview, Cheney avoided answering and said:

"I think you are going to have wait and read my book."

During his television appearance on Sunday, Cheney also said that the Obama administration should not be driven by a deadline to leave Iraq if the country is not stable enough to remain secure.