Politics

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  New York Times

• G.O.P. Report Connects Official to Fiancé’s Case

  By IAN URBINA

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:59 am

  A report released by Republicans in Congress said that a school chancellor in Washington intervened on behalf of her fiancé, who was under investigation by AmeriCorps.

• A Rebuke, but No Penalty, for an Illinois Senator

  By CARL HULSE

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:57 am

  A committee found that Senator Roland W. Burris had been less than candid in statements on his dealings with associates of the Illinois governor, who was later forced from office.

• Troubled V.A. Agency Will Get a New Chief

  By JAMES DAO

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:11 am

  The official responsible for the problem-plagued disability compensation system at the Department of Veterans Affairs will resign early next year, the department announced Friday.

• Nebraska Senator Will Vote to Start Health Debate

  By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:03 am

  Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of three wavering Democrats, said Friday that he would vote to start debate on a giant health care bill.

• U. of Nebraska Defeats Tighter Limits on Stem Cell Research

  By MONICA DAVEY

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:02 am

  The effort had been seen by opponents as a possible new front in the national debate over the matter.

• 
  Washington Post

• Prison holds promise for job-strapped town

  Peter Slevin and Kari Lydersen

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  CHICAGO -- On the edge of a cornfield 150 miles from Chicago lies a prison, all but vacant, that could become the new Guantanamo.

• Hasan had intensified contact with radical Yemeni American cleric

  Carrie Johnson, Spencer S. Hsu and Ellen Nakashima

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  In the months before the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan intensified his communications with a radical Yemeni American cleric and began to discuss surreptitious financial transfers and other steps that could translate his thoughts into action, according to two sources briefed...

• Burris reproved by Senate ethics panel

  Paul Kane

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.) has been admonished by the Senate ethics committee for his public comments about his controversial appointment to the seat previously held by President Obama.

• Storm of criticism said to buoy Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner

  Brady Dennis

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has been a lightning rod for the Obama administration even longer than he's formally held his position. This week, the storm clouds returned.

• Business Digest

  Post

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  CREDIT J.P. Morgan Chase said it is dropping a clause from its credit-card contracts that required disputes with customers to be handled through binding arbitration, a move that could open the door to consumers filing class-action and other lawsuits.

• 
  Daily Kos

• Obama: What the world needs now is jobs, sweet jobs

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  This recession has taught us that we can’t return to a situation where America’s economic growth is fueled by consumers who take on more and more debt.  In order to keep growing, we need to spend less, save more, and get our federal deficit under control.  We also need to place a greater emphasis on exports that we can build, produce, and sell to other nations – exports that can help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world. Using last week's swing through Asia as the backdrop to talk about numerous issues, President Obama in his…

• Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:37 am

  Saturday punditry as we eagerly wait for Thanksgiving. If I have to fly, I just hope Capt. Sully is my pilot. What are you thankful about? NY Times: The [stimulus] legislation, a variety of economists say, is helping an economy in free fall a year ago to grow again and shed fewer jobs than it otherwise would. Mr. Obama’s promise to "save or create" about 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 is roughly on track, though far more jobs are being saved than created, especially among states and cities using their money to avoid cutting teachers, police officers and other workers. "It was worth…

• Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm

  Robert S. Eshelman writes in The Nation: Where's the Clean Energy?: It was in Germany that Ed Regan realized Gainesville, Florida, was going about things all wrong. The assistant manager at Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) was out looking for ways to boost his city's renewable energy capacity. "Germany was a game-changer," Regan says. Wind turbines and solar panels seemed to be everywhere. He soon learned the secret. Before Regan's June 2008 trip, the GRU was trying to promote small-scale renewable energy generation by offering hefty cash rebates to customers who installed solar…

• Open Thread and Diary Rescue

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:16 pm

  On this TCCIF*, the rangers are srkp23, vcmvo2, dadanation, ybruti, blank frank, and jlms qkw waved the editor's wand. *Thank Ceiling Cat It's Friday Please celebrate good writing with us and show these diarists some love - commenting, recommending, and subscribing are all appropriate! Moonflowrr has a historical perspective on the Transgender Day Of Remembrance, And Remembering What It's About. (Blank Frank) David A Love, an African-American who has studied and worked in Japan, asks: Will Obama Help Change Asia’s Racism? (ybruti) DrDivo wonders about restoring our past versus investing…

• Polling and Political Wrap-Up, 11/20/09

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pm

  The weekend beckons.... CA-Sen: Boxer Maintains Solid Edge, Even in Ras Poll Given that the Rasmussen poll in question had some data that hinted at a GOP skew (the 55% job approval for President Obama, for example), the news on the Senate race has to be considered very good news for Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. In the new Rasmussen poll, she leads both of her likely Republican challengers (Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore) by nearly identical margins. She leads Fiorina by nine (46-37) and leads Devore by a ten-point margin (49-39). The Race for 2012: Obama Still Leads All Comers, According…

• 
  DRUDGE REPORT

• Struggling Detroit unable to bury its dead...

  The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to each toe, lie one above the other on steel racks inside a giant freezer in Detroit’s central mortuary, like discarded shoes in the back of a wardrobe. [Discuss] [Link]

• University students upset about fitness class...

  Pa. university students upset about fitness class [Discuss] [Link]

• Publicity tour turns fresh page on 'Palin Power'...

  They had been waiting for more than 24 hours, camped out on the pavements in a frigid Michigan chill. [Discuss] [Link]

• Unemployment Rose in 29 States Last Month; Michigan Rate Highest at 15.1%...

  [bn:WBTKR=USUSCALI:IND] California [], Delaware, South Carolina and Florida registered record rates of unemployment in October as weakness in the labor market stretches from coast to coast and limits the economic recovery. [Discuss] [Link]

• Germany warns US on market bubbles; Echoes China's fears...

  No summary available. [Discuss] [Link]

• 
  Talking Points Memo

• Tweeting #hcr

  Christina Bellantoni

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:50 am

  Sarah Palin tells her 25,000 Twitter followers just now: Thot I'd stick w tour news on Twitter but can't help digress: Call senators! Tell 'em KILL THE BILL tonite;horrible govt healthcare takeover

• Converge! (If You Live Nearby)

  Christina Bellantoni

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:24 am

  A Tea Party group that had planned an event to "converge" on the Capitol for today's crucial test vote on health care clarifies - the event is for those "within driving distance of DC" who "want to be there tomorrow when the Senate votes in the cover of darkness on cloture." Evan McMorris-Santoro has the story.

• Golden Dukes

  Josh Marshall

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:36 pm

  It's hard to believe we're coming up on the third annual Golden Duke Awards.

• Mysteries I Need Solved

  Josh Marshall

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:16 pm

  Anybody know what is behind the craze of right-wing journalists and politicians to dub themselves with J-Lo-esque and/or rap-like nicknames? You know what I'm talking about, right? A particularly virulent trend in the Politico newsroom apparently. But not only there.

• Rockin' the DeREG, YO!

  Josh Marshall

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:36 pm

  Meet right-wing rapper (aka, "conservative hip-hop artist") Hi Caliber, the toast of the Tea Party circuit who recently appeared in the FreedomWorks-produced video "Patriotic People."

• 
  Washington Monthly: Political Animal

• If they've already made up their minds...

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  IF THEY'VE ALREADY MADE UP THEIR MINDS.... On Fox News yesterday, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) explained, in no uncertain terms, that "every single Republican" in the Senate "will oppose" health care reform. Kyl conceded that the reform bill may change before a final floor vote, but every Republican already realizes that the legislation "will only get worse." Since it's his job to keep track of such things, Kyl's declaration is probably accurate. Indeed, it's not the least bit surprising -- the far-right Minority Whip has made similar declarations before. But Kyl's affirmation led…

• As if Standish hasn't suffered enough

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am

  AS IF STANDISH HASN'T SUFFERED ENOUGH.... Few communities have been as hard hit by the recession as Standish, Michigan. With an unemployment rate for nearly 25%, Standish's economy has been kept above water, barely, by the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility. The prison generates one-fourth of the revenue for the town's budget and is easily the largest employer. In June, the state announced it would have to close Standish Max, and the struggling town realized things were poised to go from dreadful to abysmal. In August, however, there was a glimmer of hope -- the Obama administration was…

• Hardheaded on Hardball

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  HARDHEADED ON HARDBALL.... During last year's presidential campaign, MSNBC's Chris Matthews had some annoying habits. Particularly when it came to sizing up Barack Obama, the "Hardball" host repeatedly questioned whether the candidate was disconnected from regular ol' America. For example, Obama ordered orange juice in a Pennsylvania diner, and Matthews complained ad nauseum -- real Americans order coffee at a diner, not o.j. When Obama demonstrated poor bowling skills, Matthews whined incessantly about Obama's alleged difficulties in making a "regular connection." By April, Matthews argued…

• Friday's Mini-Report

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  FRIDAY'S MINI-REPORT.... Today's edition of quick hits: * Still no word from Sens. Landrieu and Lincoln as to whether they'd rather kill health care reform than let the Senate debate the bill. Landrieu said she'd end the suspense in the morning. * Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) gets a provision he was looking for: "Senate Democratic leaders have amended their newly released health reform bill to include a contentious provision allowing some workers to receive cash vouchers toward exchange coverage in lieu of enrolling in employer-based plans." * It's encouraging to see Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith,…

• Playing a game with ellipses

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:55 pm

  PLAYING A GAME WITH ELLIPSES.... Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), who is considered a vulnerable House incumbent next year, voted against health care reform two weeks ago. She'd been under fire from the National Republican Congressional Committee, and when push came to shove, Kosmas sided with the GOP on the bill. Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell wrote a column recently about how Kosmas' vote didn't stop the Republican attacks. Democrat Suzanne Kosmas may have irritated her liberal base when she voted against Nancy Pelosi's health-care bill. But she also backed the National Republican…

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  The New Republic - Top Stories Feed

• The Most Frustrating Body

  E.J. Dionne Jr.

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  WASHINGTON--Normal human beings--let's call them real Americans--cannot understand why, 10 months after President Obama's inauguration, Congress is still tied down in a procedural torture chamber trying to pass the health care bill Obama promised in his campaign. Last year, the voters gave him the largest popular vote margin won by a presidential candidate in 20 years. They gave Democrats their largest Senate majority since 1976 and their largest House majority since 1992.

• Washington Diarist: Unmending Wall

  Leon Wieseltier

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  The absence of Barack Obama from Berlin on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall may be explained in many ways, and one of the explanations may be his view of the world. He is kein Berliner. No, he is not soft on communism, not least because there is no longer any communism, at least of the classical kind, to be soft on.

• Docudrama

  Jonathan Cohn

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Exclusive: Click here to see slides from the McKinsey report. 

• The Break-Up

  Shmuel Rosner

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Click here to read Steven A. Cook on why we should expect the Palestinians to launch a third intifada.

• The Right Way to Regulate

  Martha Coakley, Elizabeth Warren

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  In the weeks ahead, Congress may finally provide American families with a seat at the financial regulatory table in Washington, D.C. If Congress passes the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) Act of 2009, on which the House Financial Services recently reported favorably, it will establish, for the first time, a federal agency whose sole mandate is to evaluate financial products through the lens of consumer fairness. By putting the tools to evaluate loans in the hands of borrowers, it would also give families the chance, as well as the responsibility, to protect themselves.

• 
  Articles on National Review Online

• The Superbower -- By: Mark Steyn

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  My radio pal Hugh Hewitt said to me on the air the other day that Barack Obama “doesn’t know how to be president.” It was a low but effective crack and I didn’t pay it much heed. But, after musing on it over the last week or so, it seems to me frighteningly literally true. I don’t just mean social lapses like his latest cringe-making bow, this time to Their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Japan -- though that in itself is deeply weird: After the world superbower’s previous nose-to-toe prostration before the Saudi King, one assumed there’d be someone in the White…

• A Medicaid Buy-Off -- By: Brian Blase

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Sen. Harry Reid needs 60 Senate votes to pass his health-care bill and, as Jonathan Karl of ABC News reported last night, is attempting to bribe Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to be the 60th vote by shoveling money into her state. His bribe takes the form of an increased federal reimbursement of Louisiana’s Medicaid expenses. Medicaid -- the government health-insurance program for certain categories of the poor -- is a state-federal partnership. States choose the amount of money to spend on Medicaid, and then federal taxpayers pick up a portion of the tab at a rate determined by the wealth…

• Blanche Lincoln's Balancing Act -- By: David J. Sanders

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am

  For Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the moderate Arkansas Democrat, the nation’s health-care woes may lead to more headaches than any medicine could alleviate. Lincoln is a pivotal vote on the motion to begin debate on Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s health-care legislation; if the motion passes, she could be the swing vote on the eventual motion to close debate. Her decision isn’t simply a calculation about winning the right number of concessions, as perhaps President Obama and the Democratic leadership hope; it’s about her political survival. The pressure in Washington may be significant…

• Saturday Night Fever -- By: Robert Costa

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  In the 2008 presidential race, John McCain often dueled with Barack Obama over health care. Over a year later, Obama is in the White House and McCain finds himself back on Capitol Hill. The battle, however, continues. With the president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) making a final push to pass Obamacare in the upper chamber, McCain tells NRO that it is crucial for Senate Republicans to make every effort to defeat Reid’s 2,074-page blueprint, which is expected to come to a cloture vote on Saturday night. That vote will determine whether the bill can move to the Senate…

• The Man Who Would Kill Lincoln -- By: John J. Miller

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an excerpt from The First Assassin, by John J. Miller.Saturday, February 23, 1861When Lorenzo Smith heard the chugging of the train, he felt for the revolver at his side. His fingers met its smooth handle, hidden beneath his black coat. Then he found the short barrel and the trigger below. Smith had reached for it a dozen times in the last hour, but he wanted to be certain that the gun was still there. It will make me a hero, he thought. It will change history.Listening for the rumble of the train had been difficult. A loud mass of people waited for its…

• 
  ProPublica: Government & Politics

• In Face of Bankrupt Trust Funds, Virginia Cuts Unemployment Benefits, Nevada Weighs Options

  ProPublica

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  by Olga Pierce, ProPublica - Unemployment insurance trust funds in Nevada and Virginia have gone belly up. Nevada and Virginia join 22 other states that, so far, have borrowed a total of more than $20 billion from the federal government to keep unemployment checks in the mail. States have until 2011 before they have to start paying interest on their unemployment trust fund loans, but most will struggle to pay them back without raising taxes on employers or decreasing benefits to workers – just as their economies are trying to emerge from recession. The result of a historical compromise,…

• U.N. Responds to Our Story

  ProPublica

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:35 pm

  by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica - Yesterday, we published a story about a draft audit showing that the U.N. was unable to account for tens of millions of dollars sent to the Afghan elections commission. The United Nations Development Program has submitted the following formal response: Your article fails to capture the scope and depth of the UN Development Programme's assistance to the Afghan people during this electoral process. UNDP, and the international community, has made a conscious decision to work through Afghans and Afghan institutions, including the Independent Electoral…

• The Battle Over Tired Truckers: Obama Ditches Another Bush Rule

  ProPublica

  30 Oct 2009 | 10:26 am

  by Alexandra Andrews, ProPublica - The Obama administration has overturned several midnight regulations ushered in by the Bush administration during its waning months. The latest rule to get the boot was finalized in December 2008 and upped the number of hours truckers could stay behind the wheel, despite safety concerns about driver fatigue. Whatever you want to say about the Bush administration, you can't say it wasn't tenacious. It issued the same rule three times, even though the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., struck it down in both 2004 and 2008. In March of this year, a…

• U.N. Can’t Account for Millions Sent to Afghan Election Board

  ProPublica

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:15 am

  by T. Christian Miller and Dafna Linzer, ProPublica - The United Nations cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to the troubled Afghan election commission, according to two confidential U.N. audits and interviews with current and former senior diplomats. (Read both audits.) As Afghanistan prepares for a second round of national voting, the documents and interviews paint the fullest picture to date of the finances of the election commission, which has been accused of facilitating election fraud and operating ghost polling places. The new disclosures also deepen the questions…

• Company Won’t Drill in NYC Watershed

  ProPublica

  28 Oct 2009 | 2:31 pm

  by Sabrina Shankman, ProPublica - For now, New York City’s water appears to be safe from drilling. Responding to mounting concerns that chemicals from natural gas drilling could contaminate drinking water, Chesapeake Energy Corporation declared it will not drill in the city’s upstate watershed, the pristine water source that supplies unfiltered water to 9 million downstate residents. “Our research has shown we are the only leasehold owner in the New York City watershed, and so Chesapeake is uniquely positioned to take this issue off the table,” Chesapeake CEO Aubrey…

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  New Majority - David Frum

• Ron Wyden’s Good Idea

  David Frum

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:28 pm

  Sen. Ron Wyden has sold to the Democratic leadership an amendment that would enable more employees to cash out their employer-provided benefits and buy their own insurance policy on a health exchange. This seems a great idea – and even more, a great idea for conservatives. Remember, it was conservative economists who established the case for the irrationality of the whole employer-provided benefits system. It’s been a crazy feature of this year’s debate that conservatives keep backing themselves into positions they did not believe two years ago and won’t believe two…

• Hayek Prize

  David Frum

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pm

  Congratulations to Amity Shlaes, winner of this year’s Hayek Prize from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation in recognition of her book, The Forgotten Man.

• Israel Doesn’t Need Religious Police

  Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:02 pm

  Earlier this week, a woman praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was arrested for wearing a prayer shawl (a tallit).  Police defended their actions and argued that they were upholding a recent court ruling that visitors to the Western Wall needed to adhere to the site’s customs and dress codes.  This arrest though strikes me as deeply offensive and it sets a dangerous precedent. First, religious teachings support the woman who was arrested.  Jewish law expressly permits women to wear a tallit.  The great Maimonides explicitly states: Women are permitted to wear tzitzit (Laws of…

• Palin’s Heartland Appeal

  Peter Worthington

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:36 am

  Sarah Palin is back, using her book Going Rogue as a prop – and from all indications she ain’t going away – which may be why passions, pro and con, are so intense about her. There seems no middle ground when it comes to Palin — some of it understandable, most of it puzzling. If she’s a ditz, an airhead as some insist, someone without the depth or substance to be president, why worry about her? The electorate will catch on. So why do Democrats slag her at every opportunity? If she’s a genuine threat to be a contender for power on the Republican side, why are so many…

• Fox News: Feminist Champion

  David Frum

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:40 am

  On the Fox News site today, I clicked a link to a Sean Hannity interview with Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Hannity opened the item by blasting Newsweek’s cover story on Gov. Palin as “blatantly sexist.” He asked, “What is behind this double standard?” At about the 3:11 minute mark, Hasselbeck offers this answer to the host’s questions: “When I saw that I was infuriated, as most women should be. It is as you said blatantly sexist. Where now is the National Organization for Women? Where are they? Where are they when a conservative woman is being reduced to…

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  Michelle Malkin

• Another day, another Berkeley tantrum

  Michelle Malkin

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:26 pm

  Read this post »

• Corruptocrat AG Eric Holder’s conflicted DOJ

  Michelle Malkin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm

  Read this post »

• ACORN Watch: More criminal enterprise antics

  Michelle Malkin

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:34 am

  Read this post »

• The global warming scandal of the century

  Michelle Malkin

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am

  Read this post »

• The Demcare bribe list

  Michelle Malkin

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am

  Read this post »

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  Swampland

• 1,000 Words: Clean-Up Edition

  Karen Tumulty

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:25 am

  From our White House Photo Blog, this scene from President Obama's trip to China:

• Landrieu for $100 million

  Jay Newton-Small

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:23 am

  Senate Democratic leaders are wooing Senators Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln -- the last three hold outs who have not pledged to vote for the motion to proceed tomorrow night to start the debate on health care reform. Lincoln, an embattled Arkansas centrist, has been demanding 72 hours to read the bill -- [...]

• Civil Disobedience, Religious Right-Style

  Amy Sullivan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:16 am

  Forget WWJD. The new question is apparently What Would MLK Do? A coalition of politically and theologically conservative Christian leaders, including nine Roman Catholic bishops, who have just signed a declaration saying they will not comply with laws that could require them to recognize same-sex unions or allow their institutions to support abortions are arguing [...]

• Health Care Moves Into Full Campaign Mode

  Karen Tumulty

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm

  I have this on TIME.com.

• The Senate Bill and the Public Option

  Karen Tumulty

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am

  I've always had trouble understanding the opt-out version of the public option. Or more specifically, I've had trouble understanding why any state would actually opt out of something that some might find ideologically objectionable, but that doesn't actually cost them anything, gives their citizens a choice, and might actually bring in some government money down [...]

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  Politico

• GOP eyes McDonnell strategy

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:19 am

  Top Republicans believe they've found a winning formula for appealing to voters in 2010.

• Sunday talk show tip sheet

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:07 am

  Hours after Saturday's cloture vote on a $848B health bill, senators take to the Sunday shows to discuss it.

• What to watch for in today's debate

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Today, Harry Reid can't spare a single Democrat as the Senate decides whether to start the debate.

• Obama: Asia trip part of U.S. jobs push

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:07 pm

  In his weekly address, President Obama says he "will go anywhere" in pursuit of economic growth and jobs.

• GOP: Breast exams show 'rationing'

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm

  Current events are playing into public fears about a bigger government role in health care.

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  USA Today: On Politics

• Former party leaders urge Congress to work together on health care

  Eugene Kiely

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  Former Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson are making a bi-partisan appeal to Congress the day before the Senate decides whether they will debate the $848 billion health care bill. “While we both...

• Senators can fly on corporate, private jets for low fares

  Fredreka Schouten

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pm

  Good government groups are blasting the Federal Election Commission today for approving a new rule that allows U.S. senators to fly on corporate and private jets at deeply discounted prices. Watchdogs, such as Democracy 21's Fred Wertheimer, say the provision...

• Sen. Ben Nelson: Let the health care debate begin

  Eugene Kiely

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am

  Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said today he will vote on Saturday to allow the health care debate to begin -- putting Senate Democratic leaders that much closer to the 60 votes they need to start the debate. In a statement,...

• Jesse Jackson walks back comment about Artur Davis

  Eugene Kiely

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am

  Yesterday we reported on a comment the Rev. Jesse Jackson made at a dinner held by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation that seemed directed at Rep. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala. Davis, who is running for governor of Alabama, was the...

• Ethics panel reprimands Sen. Burris

  Fredreka Schouten

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am

  The Senate's ethics committee has formally admonished Illinois Sen. Roland Burris for making misleading statements and having contacts with associates of indicted former governor Rod Blagojevich in connection with Burris' appointment to the Senate. The committee said it did not...

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  CNN

• A push to simplify credit card 'gobbledygook'

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:33 pm

  Most cardholders never read the long complicated legalese in a credit card agreement -- and that could spell trouble.

• Health care rhetoric heats up before key vote

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pm

  Traditional Senate decorum yielded to brass-knuckle politicking before a key procedural vote.

• Health care: Senate vote Saturday

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm

  To debate or not to debate the Senate's health care reform bill; that is the question.

• Senate panel clears Burris of legal wrongdoing

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:41 am

  The Senate Ethics Committee issued a letter Friday clearing embattled Illinois Sen. Roland Burris of any legal wrongdoing.

• Poll: Public shifting blame for recession

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

  Opinion about which political party is responsible for the recession is shifting, according to a new poll.

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  Yahoo! News: Politics

• GOP: Health test recommendations could affect care (AP)

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:24 am

  AP - Republicans are seizing on this week's recommendations for fewer Pap smears and mammograms to fuel concern about government-rationed medical care — and to try to chip away support by women for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

• US to drop shooting case against Blackwater guard (AP)

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  AP - The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.

• Obama trumpets Asia trip as boost to US economy (AP)

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:49 am

  AP - President Barack Obama's eight-day trip to Asia produced no tangible wins for the United States, though he is citing talks with Asian allies that he says could help create thousands of jobs and open new markets for American goods in the future.

• Levin: could be more e-mails from Ft. Hood suspect (AP)

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:50 am

  AP - WASHINGTON — The government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between the alleged Fort Hood gunman and a radical Muslim cleric, and a key senator says there could be more communications that might have tipped off law enforcement or military officials.

• 1st Senate vote looms on health legislation (AP)

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:48 am

  AP - A crucial first Senate vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in a rare Saturday night session looms as a test of Democratic unity and the president's prestige.

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  First Read

• Week Ahead: Saturday Night Fever

  Domenico Montanaro

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pm

  THE WEEK AHEAD: Congress is back for another Saturday night health care vote, Obama's first state dinner, Palin's tour continues, plus a special peek inside the First Read Man Cave with a special goateed guest. Happy Thanksgiving. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy See how many sports teams/memorabilia items you can spot! Win fun prizes (not!)...(read more)

• Obama approval drops below 50%

  Domenico Montanaro

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:43 am

  From NBC's Domenico MontanaroPresident Obama has now dropped, for the first time, below 50% approval in the Gallup poll. It's the second poll this week to show that result. This puts Obama on par with Ronald Reagan, who also fell below 50% 10 months into the job -- and better than Bill Clinton, who fell below in his fourth month. Reagan was dealing with similar economic numbers. For context, here's what we wrote about this when the possibility was first floated that Obama could fall below 50%...(read more)

• Nelson's a 'yes'

  Domenico Montanaro

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:37 am

  From NBC's Ken StricklandAs was expected after Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-NE) statement yesterday explaining what a vote for cloture would mean, he has now released a statement saying that he will vote with Democrats. His full written statement after the jump: ...(read more)

• Lincoln 'still reviewing' health bill

  Domenico Montanaro

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  From NBC's Ken StricklandAfter reading reports that Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has already told Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) how she'll vote tomorrow on issue of whether to bring the healthcare bill to the floor, Lincoln's office was quick respond. "No other Senator speaks for Senator Lincoln," Lincoln's spokeswoman told NBC in an email. "She is still reviewing the bill." Earlier in the day, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat Dick Durbin told several reporters that Lincoln had already...(read more)

• Durbin: Lincoln has told Reid

  Domenico Montanaro

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

  From NBC's Ken StricklandAt a news conference this morning, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) pre-emptively gave the his answer to the question everyone's been asking over the past few weeks: does Majority Leader Harry Reid have the 60 votes needed to bring the healthcare bill to the floor. "We're not assuming a thing," Durbin said, "we're working hard to bring all Democrats together for the 60 votes necessary to proceed to this historic debate." But it's possible Durbin and Reid are playing coy and already...(read more)

• 
  Political Irony

• Late Night Political Humor

  Iron Knee

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  “Sarah Palin is everywhere right now. Have you noticed that? This week, Sarah Palin is going to appear on ‘Oprah,’ ‘Good Morning America,’ ‘ABC World News,’ ‘Nightline,’ ‘Sean Hannity,’ and ‘20/20.’ During all her appearances, Palin will talk about how the media won’t leave her alone.” – Conan O’Brien “Sarah Palin’s got that book out, that ‘Going Rogue.’ And she says that she was upset with John McCain because at the end of the election night, the McCain people would not…

• State of Mind

  Iron Knee

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:36 am

  National Geographic asked senators to draw their state and label a few important points. Most Senators did OK, but Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss drew something that looks much more like Mississippi (which, in case you are likewise geographically challenged, is two states over from Georgia). Georgia’s other senator, Johnny Isakson, did only slightly better. Sigh. Please Share / Save Related posts:Red State = Red Light State? A new study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives...Is Obama ready to lead? Oh, never mind. © John Sherffius Please Share / Save...Police State We Can…

• GOP Fantasyland

  Iron Knee

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am

  According to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, a majority (52%) of Republicans believe that Obama did not actually win the 2008 election, because ACORN stole the election for him. Only 27% of Republicans believe that Obama won the election legitimately. This, despite the fact that Obama won the election by 9.5 million votes. That would be an awful lot of ballot stuffing by ACORN. I’m flabbergasted. So I guess it is no surprise that Conservative Party Congressional candidate Doug Hoffman is now accusing ACORN of stealing the recent election that he lost. Hoffman conceded on election…

• Late Night Political Humor

  Iron Knee

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am

  “According to excerpts from Sarah Palin’s memoir, ‘Going Rogue,’ the former vice presidential nominee says her infamous Katie Couric interview went so poorly because Couric was badgering, had a partisan agenda, and asked questions.” – Seth Meyers “Sarah Palin is gonna be on Oprah Winfrey’s show on Monday. Well, not to be outdone, John McCain is going on ‘The Oz’ show to get a prostate exam.” – Jay Leno “In her new book, Sarah Palin claims that before John McCain chose her as his running mate, his campaign spent $50,000 on a…

• Intel Outside

  Iron Knee

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:24 am

  Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested outside Intel’s new chip plant in Jerusalem, saying that the plant was desecrating the Sabbath by performing work on Saturday. The Jewish Sabbath runs from Friday night until Saturday night. © Kichka Please Share / Save No related posts.

• 
  Politics Daily

• Pollster Celinda Lake: Where Women Really Stand on Health Care

  Martha Burk

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Filed under: Senate, House, Abortion, Health Care, PollsWomen's groups expressed dismay on November 7 when the House passed a health care bill with unprecedented abortion restrictions. The Stupak-Pitts amendment prohibits any health plan participating in the proposed nationwide exchange from offering abortion coverage, meaning virtually all plans. The initial alarm has now turned to anger and mobilized a backlash against Democrats who voted for the amendment, along with a nationwide push to keep the restrictions out of the upcoming Senate bill. With the full Senate tackling the legislation…

• Burma Journal: The Hard Work of Healing Is a Bitter Pill for Doctors

  Alex Wagner

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Filed under: Burma JournalBurma is not a good place to get sick. It's a bad place for a lot of things -- basic freedoms, rule of law, taxis (the fleet in Rangoon is about 30 years old and suffering from some seriously gnarly transmission ailments). Still, the government has an abysmal record when it comes to helping the sick: In 2005, UNICEF reported that the government spent a paltry 40 cents a year on health care per citizen (in comparison, the Thai government spent nearly $61 per person). In 2000, Burma's health care system was ranked190th out of 191 countries by the World Health…

• The 'Botox Tax': A Troubling New Wrinkle

  Joann M. Weiner

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Filed under: Economy, Budget, Health Care, Taxes, Woman UpWhen word spread that Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's health care bill would tax Botox treatments, my immediate reaction was "What are they thinking?"The tax benefit would be relatively trivial, but the cost in terms of raising the ire of baby boomers, especially women, and the inevitable ridicule of late-night comedians is potentially astronomical.Couldn't the Democrats have found some other way to raise $5 billion?  Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

• Did Texas' Same-Sex Amendment Accidently Outlaw Marriage?

  Ria Misra

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Filed under: Woman UpIn approving an amendment to its constitution prohibiting gay marriage four years ago, Texas may have inadvertently outlawed all marriages in the state. And that could have implications for next year's race for attorney general. The controversy stems from two snippets of phrasing voters opted to add to the state's constitution in 2005. The first was: "Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." It's the second provision, though -- "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status…

• Student Protests Erupt in California as Regents Raise Tuition 32 Percent

  Joshua Chaney

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Filed under: The CramHundreds of students from around the state converged on the University of California-Los Angeles this week to protest a vote there by state regents Thursday to raise tuition 32 percent to combat major cuts in state funding. Rallying outside UCLA's Covel Commons, where the regents held a three-day meeting, demonstrators beat drums, chanted and carried signs that said "R.I.P. Our Future." On Wednesday, 14 protesters were arrested -- 12 of them students. The next afternoon, after the vote for the tuition hike, students linked arms in an attempt to block the regents from…

• 
  AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

• Kenya evicts Mau forest residents

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:24 am

  Kenya evicts squatters from Mau forest due to country's endangered water supply.

• Migrant workers at risk in S Africa

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  At least 2,000 Zimbabweans seek refuge in rugby stadium after their shacks are levelled.

• Afghanistan announces army upgrade

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  Plan to boost force size to 240,000 unveiled as attacks in Afghan capital continue.

• Romania holds presidential vote

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:58 am

  Voters in Romania choose from one of three candidates to take up nation's presidency.

• Arrests in Italy over Mumbai attack

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:42 am

  Two Pakistanis accused of providing logistical help to perpetrators of rampage in Indian city.

• 
  THE HUFFINGTON POST

• David Horton: Dream of money-bags tonight

  David Horton

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:06 pm

  All of us who concerned about the future of the planet have misunderestimated the opposition from those who are not. We thought that the flooding of web sites, talk back radio, television chat shows, letters columns in newspapers, blogs, with tens of thousands of mindless repetitions of a few talking points, was the main tactic. It had been modelled, perhaps, on the dropping of aluminum foil plates ("Window") by planes heading for Calais on 6 June 1944. The foil looked like massed planes and ships to German radar, making them believe, until too late, that the invasion force was heading in…

• Huff Radio: Left, Right & Center: Obama-Geithner Revolt, Sarah Palin, Health Care Update

  Huff Radio

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:06 pm

  There's a strong feeling that Congress is bucking Obama and isn't being called to task for it. For the first time, Obama's approval ratings are below 50 percent (Gallup poll says) and calls for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's resignation are growing louder. Sarah Palin's managed to suck up a good deal of media oxygen. Bob calls her a "tarbaby for the Republican party, a monster they created," while Tony says he's pro-Palin and thinks people clamor for her because she speaks her mind and breaks through. He says her honesty is her virtue while Bob and Arianna fear that she is dangerous,…

• Bella DePaulo: Sarah Palin and Her Lies (And Her Fans Who Attack Her Critics)

  Bella DePaulo

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:58 pm

  I've been blogging since June of 2006 and have not avoided controversial issues or people. But something I recently posted at Psychology Today, "Sarah Palin's Lies" (now posted in full below), elicited more vitriolic comments and personal e-mails than anything else I've ever written. Here are a few examples: "Why is it that fat, ugly sluts like you are always liberal democrats?" "You will die, eventually, and take the evil with you. And that is as it should be. As such, you are clearly not a real American, but one of the obama type. There are plenty of places for you to live, but NOT in the…

• Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [102] -- Harry Reid's Glacial Progress Grinds On

  Chris Weigant

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:31 pm

  Our illustrious (cough, cough) White House press corps showed it could get to the bottom of a story with impressively journalistic and probative skills this week. The story that so obviously required multiple questions to President Obama on his trip to Asia? Whether he's eating enough, and whether he's losing weight. Oh, and his gray hair. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Somebody, obviously bored on the excruciatingly long plane ride, decided they'd float the rumor that Obama was skipping meals and getting dangerously thin. Because the reporters were all trapped in the same flying…

• David Segal: Slow And Steady As We "Race To The Top"

  David Segal

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm

  As Obama's Department of Education touts its charter-school-propelling "Race to the Top," whose regulations were issued last week, let's heed the moral of the fable that we all learned in grade school: In the end, the Tortoise beats out the Hare. Alan Gottlieb recently wrote about a plan by the Denver Public Schools to effectively morph charters into standard neighborhood schools, whereby kids in a particular catchment area would be steered to them by default. This is a terribly important move whose outcomes we should carefully observe. Charters typically require students' parents to enter…

• 
  msnbc.com: Politics

• Moderate Dems wooed in crucial health vote

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

  With no margin for rebellion, Senate Democratic leaders push ahead toward a crucial weekend test vote on their sweeping health care bill.

• Army to allow media to Palin book event

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:48 pm

  The U.S. Army has reversed itself and says it will open former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's appearance on Fort Bragg to media.

• Billboard links Obama with jihadists

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:22 pm

  A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up.

• Botax ? Nip/tuck levy to help fund health plan

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

  The White House and Senate Democrats have turned to a proposal to tax breast implants, tummy tucks, wrinkle-smoothing injections and other procedures as they search for ways to pay for costly health care overhaul plans.

• Pelosi calls Karzai 'unworthy partner'

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:41 am

  Afghan President Hamid Karzai is an "unworthy partner" who does not deserve a big boost either in U.S. troops or civilian aid, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

• 
  FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right

• I Read Through 160,000,000 Bytes of Hacked Files And All I Got Was This Lousy E-Mail

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  It's the global warming scandal of the century, says Michelle Malkin!The exposure of the warmist conspiracy, says Andrew Bolt!The final nail in the coffin of anthropogenic global warming, bleats James Delingpole!A stunning tour de force -- four stars, says Leonard Maltin!OK, so that last quote is made up. But the others aren't. What is it these conservatives are so excited about?Apparently, the networks of University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit were hacked into last night. Approximately 160 megabytes of files, containing hundreds or thousands of e-mails and documents were leaked as…

• It's [Still] The Economy, Dumbass

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:45 am

  All right -- this is my favorite graph in quite some time. Let's show the picture first and ask questions later.What we have is a comparison of Barack Obama's approval ratings on the economy to his approval ratings overall. It includes all polls in the Pollster.com database that asked about both approval of Obama on the economy and his overall job performance -- a total of 109 polls dating back to the start of his term. I've then drawn in some LOESS curves to illustrate the trend.The two lines track each other uncannily well. From the very start of Obama's term, there's been about a 5-6 point…

• Dems Lucky There Aren't More Lincolns

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:37 pm

  How can Democrats expect to get 60 votes for their health care bill in the Senate when it barely garnered a majority in the House? It's a good question that has a number of good answers. For instance: the Senate's bill is more moderate than the House's. And the 60-vote threshold applies only to procedural matters and not to final passage, meaning that Democrats could hedge their bets by voting for cloture but against the bill itself.But perhaps the most fundamental difference is this one: only a third of the Senate is up for re-election each cycle. Not only that, but the Democratic senators…

• Senate Handicapping One Year Out

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pm

  The 2010 Senate contests, I submit, will tell us more than either the House or gubernatorial results next year about the relative status of the two parties and their competitiveness. Why?For one, historically the president's party loses an average of about 16 House seats in his first midterm cycle, but there's really not much of a Senate correction. (The average is less than one seat.) Obviously, the Democrats could still over- or underperform the 16-seat benchmark. But the House results, if the GOP overperforms, are not likely to dethrone Nancy Pelosi. Second, gubernatorial results are…

• American Politics and International Soccer: Who's the Ref?

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  The rhetorical link between sports and politics in the U.S. has been widely documented, with sports providing a treasure trove of analogies, quotes and other trinkets for politicians. At the same time, pundits have long enjoyed the usage of sport as a foil for political commentary. In many ways, it makes intuitive sense, with both fields defined by highly adversarial relationships, impassioned periods of training and execution, large quantities of public exposure and critique, and intense love-hate relations with the media.Therefore, that we could draw political parallels from last evening's…

• 
  Media Matters for America - Latest Items

• Quick Fact: Hannity falsely claimed Gore was wrong to say British judge ruling on An Inconvenient Truth "favored his point of view"

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:12 pm

  In an interview with British filmmaker and climate change skeptic Phelim McAleer, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Al Gore's statement that a 2007 ruling by a British judge about Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, in Hannity's words, "favored his point of view" was "absolutely false." From the November 20 edition of Fox News' Hannity: HANNITY: Well, [Gore's] claiming that this court decision actually, you know, favored his point of view, that is absolutely false.  MCALEER: That is false.  HANNITY: Explain.  MCALEER: Well, the court case, it was a lengthy hearing, maybe…

• Quick Fact: Hannity falsely suggests Democratic health bills would "actually" only insure "12 million" people

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:47 pm

  Sean Hannity responded to a statement by Democratic strategist Jacques DeGraff that "We're on the threshold of taking care of 31 million Americans who don't have health insurance" by claiming that "It's actually 12 million" who would get insurance. From the November 20 edition of Fox News' Hannity: FORMER MD GOV. ROBERT ERLICH: We're on the threshold of quadrupling the national debt. DEGRAFF: We're on the threshold of taking care of 31 million Americans who don't have health insurance. HANNITY: It's actually 12 million, but that's a whole different story. Fact: CBO says Senate and House…

• Quick Fact: Fearmongering about rationing, Baier falsely claimed a "federal panel" promulgated cervical cancer guidelines

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:53 pm

  Special Report host Bret Baier falsely claimed that recently released cervical cancer screening guidelines were promulgated by a "federal panel," adding that those guidelines "open the door to this conversation about rationing." Additionally, Mara Liasson suggested that that the Senate health care reform bill would implement a task force's recommendations for breast cancer screenings when "writing the basic health care package that insurers who participate in these exchanges are going to offer." From the November 20 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier: BAIER: I want to turn to…

• Media Matters: The Palin chronicles

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:02 pm

  It was all too predictable. From the moment Sarah Palin was airlifted out of the Alaska hinterlands by John McCain and plopped onto the national stage, she's been telling anyone who will listen how poorly she's been treated by the media, the Democrats, the blogosphere, etc. After she did her part in scuttling McCain's already foundering campaign, she added to her list of personal persecutors the same McCain staffers who made her a household name in the first place. The conservative media have cheered on her personal pity party every step of the way, adamantly refusing to acknowledge that…

• Greg Lewis: The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:44 pm

  Once upon a time, Rush Limbaugh would profess how conservative thinkers like Charles Krauthammer were the bee's knees. He even said, on more than one occasion, that he would consider trading brains with Krauthammer: LIMBAUGH: As you may remember my having said -- and I'll say it again -- I admire Charles Krauthammer like I admire few people. If I didn't have my own brain, it would be a toss-up as to whether I would want Krauthammer's brain or Justice Scalia's brain. I'm happy with my brain, but if I had to go in there and get a new one, it would be a toss-up between Scalia and Krauthammer.

• 
  Wide Angle

• World Links: Equatorial Guinea Pardons Simon Mann, Claude Levi-Strauss Dies at 100

  lauren feeney

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:34 am

  Czech President Vaclav Klaus signs the Lisbon Treaty, an agreement meant to streamline European Union decision-making that includes the establishment of an E.U. president. Klaus was the last hold out on the document, which required the unanimous support of all 27 E.U. member states. The treaty could now take effect as early as December. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appears at his war crimes trial at the Hague after having boycotted it last week, but asks for 10 months to prepare his defense. Judges temporarily adjourn the case while they decide what to do. The European Court of…

• World Links: Karzai Declared Winner in Afghanistan, Opposition to Renew Challenge in Iran

  lauren feeney

  2 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pm

  President Hamid Karzai is declared winner of Afghanistan’s disputed elections after his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, withdraws from the race. Suicide attacks hit two of Pakistan’s largest cities — thirty people are killed in a blast in near  Pakistani army headquarters in Rawalpindi, and two suicide bombers and a policeman are killed in a car bombing at a police checkpoint in Lahore. French-Senegalese writer Marie NDiaye becomes the first black woman to win France’s top literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for her book Trois Femmes Puissantes (Three Powerful…

• World Links: Haitian PM Ousted, Honduran Rivals Agree to Deal

  lauren feeney

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am

  Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and defacto leader Roberto Micheletti agree to a deal that could lead to the creation of a power-sharing government with Zelaya resotred to the presidency. The deal, already hailed as “an historic agreement” by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, must now be approved by the Honduran congress. In one of the biggest changes in the forty-year history of the Internet, web addresses written in non-Latin characters will soon be allowed. Former French President Jacques Chirac is ordered to stand trial on corruption charges dating back to his…

• World Links: Iran Responds to Nuclear Deal, Race for E.U. President Begins

  lauren feeney

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:36 pm

  Iran hands over an initial response to a draft deal with the U.N. under which the country’s uranium would be sent abroad for processing. Iran is seeking two crucial changes to the plan — a slower timetable for delivery and the “simultaneous exchange” of nuclear fuel in return — but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the country is ready to cooperate. The Taliban and Al Qaeda deny involvement in yesterday’s bombing that killed over 100 people in a crowded market in Peshawar, Pakistan. Kuwait’s highest court rules that female parliamentarians do…

• World Links: Nearly 100 Dead in Peshawar Blast, Six U.N. Staffers Killed in Kabul

  lauren feeney

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:07 am

  Nearly 100 people are killed in a massive car bombing in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier. The blast hit a popular market full of fabric and clothing shops frequented mostly by women, and many of the dead are women and children. The attack comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits the country. Six U.N. staffers and two Afghan security guards are killed in an attack on their guest house in central Kabul. A Taliban spokesman takes credit, siting the U.N.’s involvement in Afghanistan’s presidential elections as the reason for the…

• 
  The WIP: Byline portal + WIP Contibutors

• "Liberation Was Just a Big Lie"

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:03 am

  by Olivia Ward, Toronto Star, Canada - She sleeps in safe houses, with a rotating squad of bodyguards securing the doors. She goes out only in a billowing burqa. Even her wedding was held in secret.

• Photo Essay: Refugees from Bhutan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am

  by Anna Husarska, APFA News.com, Bhutan - In Bhutan, a Himalyan country famed for its focus on Gross National Happiness, the Nepalese minority has been forced out

• Report: Bush Officials Knew AIG Would Use Bailout Funds To Pay Counterparties

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:40 am

  by Mary Susan Littlepage, truthout, USA - Government officials were aware that billions of dollars used to bail out American International Group (AIG) last year were used by the insurance giant to pay off its creditors, according to a newly released government watchdog report.

• Beyond the Votes in Bolivia: A Reflection on Evo Morales First Term

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

  by Ashwini Srinivasamohan, Upside Down World, USA - The history of popular struggle in Bolivia took an unexpected turn when Evo Morales, the candidate of the socialist party (MAS) was elected into office.

• Dr Amina Wadud: For a Progressive Islam

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am

  by Trisha Sertori, Jakarta Post, Indonesia - Dr. Wadud, a scholar and feminist, is well-known for her progressive position within Islam and seeking justice for women under sharia.

• 
  The Progressive

• The right to a great public education

  Scot Vee

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:21 am

  By Alvaro Huerta, November 19, 2009 To ease the budget crisis, one state after another is taking an ax to higher education. This is cruel and shortsighted.read more

• It’s shameful that millions go hungry in the land of plenty

  Scot Vee

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:27 am

  By David A. Love, November 19, 2009 We need to wipe out hunger in America. It’s a sin that it not only exists but is actually increasing in the richest nation on Earth.read more

• Behind the Mammogram Controversy

  Ruth Conniff

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm

  By Ruth Conniff, November 18, 2009 Just because it gives people a feeling of psychological empowerment to do something does not mean promoting the hell out of dubiously effective screening is the right thing to do.read more

• Obama wrong to be muted on human rights during China trip

  Scot Vee

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:22 am

  By Winifred C. Chin, November 18, 2009 The China that Obama visited is quite different from the underdeveloped China that President Nixon encountered in 1972 or the China that greeted Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush on their visits.read more

• Andrea Lewis, A Beautiful Voice

  Matthew Rothschild

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pm

  By Matthew Rothschild, November 16, 2009 The progressive movement in America has lost a beautiful voice. Andrea Lewis, radio host at KPFA and a contributing writer for The Progressive magazine and Progressive Media Project, died this weekend of a massive heart attack. She was only 52.read more

• 
  Jack & Jill Politics

• President Obama’s Weekly Address

  b-serious

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

• Saturday Open Thread

  rikyrah

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:06 am

  ———–ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Good Morning. As you go through your weekend spending time with family and friends, don’t forget JJP. Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too. And always, have a peaceful day.

• Heather Ellis Takes a Plea Deal

  rikyrah

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:18 pm

  got this from an email alert. CNN: Woman to plead guilty to misdemeanors in Missouri Wal-Mart scuffle November 20, 2009 8:35 p.m. EST Kennett, Missouri (CNN) — A woman accused of cutting in line at a Wal-Mart, shoving merchandise and assaulting police officers will plead guilty to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. Under the agreement — reached after the jury received the case for deliberations — Heather Ellis will plead guilty to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. She will serve a year of unsupervised probation, attend an anger management…

• Oprah Announces End of Talk Show

  rikyrah

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pm

  If you can find a better video clip, please leave the link down below, but this was the best one I found so far.

• Hate Group, FAIR, Looking for “Ethnically Ambiguous” Actors- Think You Have What it Takes?

  Adam Luna

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  We just got word that the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group, is holding a casting call in Atlanta tomorrow for a new web video that will change the hearts and minds of the average American. Think you have what it takes to be a mouthpiece for hate? They will pay $500 to “ethnically ambiguous” actors in their 20s or 30s, with no Southern accent, who can work with a teleprompter — to help them put a modern face on their extreme agenda and disguise their clear ties to white nationalism. FAIR spends…

• 
  digg.com: Stories / Political News / Popular

• OBAMA DROPS BELOW 50% IN GALLUP

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:02 pm

  Ben Smith's POLITICO.com blog on politics. Includes new political coverage of the White House and elections around the country.

• Bishops Press Obama to Strike Provision on Abortion Funding

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm

  A coalition of Christian leaders -- including New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan -- are putting heat on the White House to strike down any provision in the Senate's health care reform bill that allows abortion coverage in federally subsidized plans.

• Sarah Palin Flees Book Signing, Wingnuts Yell At Leaving Bus

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm

  Angry crowd shouts at Sarah Palin at her book signing in Noblesville, Indiana on November 19, 2009 after Palin quits and refuses to sign books for around 300 families that spent about 3+ hours waiting in line.

• Utah Senator doesn’t want gays “stuffing it down his throat”

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

  In something of a positive step for the gay person in Utah, Utah senator Chris Buttars has said he might support a bill giving gay people equal rights for jobs and non-marriage related things. His word phrasing of not wanting gays “stuffing it down [his] throat all the time and certainly in [his] kid’s face” leaves something to be desired.

• The $100 Million Health Care Vote? - The Note

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am

  The health care bill includes a $100 million section for increasing medicaid subsidies to the state of Louisiana. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, Republicans, and all latest political campaigning for the 2012 presidential race. Washington's first and most influential tipsheet, The

• 
  The Nation: Editor's Cut

• An Alternative to Escalation in Afghanistan

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:11 am

  President Obama is expected to make a decision regarding his Afghanistan strategy after Thanksgiving. Before doing so, he would be wise to consider an alternative which has, until now, been excluded from the systematic review of the gravest decision a president must make. That alternative is laid out clearly in a just-released letter to President Obama from the Congressional Progressive Caucus' Afghanistan Taskforce. Through careful consultation with a wide array of experts, including those who testified at a series of forums on Afghanistan earlier this year, the Taskforce has developed a…

• Real Simple Economics

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  Chuck Collins, co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, describes the difference between this financial crisis and those of the past. "The risk of this economic crisis is that people stay isolated, hunkered down and afraid," Collins says. "What's different from the serious economic crises of the past is the much greater potential for fragmentation and isolation--because we've lived through a couple generations of 'you are on your own' economics. So the idea that we can trust any kind of shared response is broken." That's why in January…

• Affectionate Jousting with Michael Tomasky

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:34 am

  My good friend Michael Tomasky has a blog over at 'The Guardian'... I consider it what he called it in his subject line--an "affectionate joust." (Mike is an ace former 'Nation' intern, a longtime friend, a brilliant writer and not-frequent-enough-in-my-view 'Nation' contributor.) In his blog he takes on (some of) my comments on MSNBC's Ed Schultz show last night. (A little friendly cherry-picking, Mike!) I don't disagree with much of what Mike writes. My first reflex is certainly not to blame Obama. (See my column on "Obama, One Year On"--posted below, for more on why I think progressives…

• Around the Nation

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  15 Nov 2009 | 1:35 pm

  The opportunity to sit down and talk with the remarkable American writers (and Nation Editorial Board members) Toni Morrison, Tony Kushner, and Walter Mosley is rare enough one on one. The chance to talk with all three of them together, about the future of our culture, is extraordinary. If you're in New York on Wednesday night, you have that opportunity to do just that--at the second of two Nation "Salons." In these intimate discussions (with a cocktail party to follow) we're bringing together some of the best thinkers in the World to debate critical topics of our time. The first Salon last…

• Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:10 pm

  When it comes to understanding the real economy and the struggles of ordinary Americans, Senator Bernie Sanders always seems to be ahead of the curve and fighting like hell for Congress to show leadership and be responsive. Now he's doing it once again with his legislation to break up the Too Big To Fail financial institutions that pose a threat to our entire economy. Sanders coined the phrase, "If you're too big to fail, you're too big to exist," back when he voted against the initial Wall Street Bailout in October 2008. Now, none other than former Fed Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul…

• 
  Nukes & Spooks

• Has the Obama administration begun the sales pitch for its new Afghan policy?

  Nancy Youssef

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm

  When an administration changes its stance on something, it often does so subtlety. After all, who wants to boast of  changing his or her mind, which suggests that he or she might have been wrong at one point? So when an administration wants to change its position on something, it sends key policymakers out to start telegraphing the change in their talking points. They tweak a sentence or the official  answer to a commonly-asked question in a way that only those who follow the issue closely are likely to catch. Usually, a coterie of policymakers working on the same issue alter their wording…

• Army backs down, lets media into Palin event

  Nancy Youssef

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:01 pm

  Well, the Sarah Palin book tour is coming to some military bases.  It is not surprising since McCain/Palin ticket had large support from the military As such, fans are eagerly planninng to line up at Fort Bragg to get their copies of “Going Rogue” signed by the vice presidential candidate herself. The Army had announced that the media, however, could not cover the event.  We are now hearing they are planning to media in. Read the latest here. According to this Associated Press report, the Army was going to keep the media out because it feared that the signing will turn into a political…

• The SECDEF aka the Plumber

  Nancy Youssef

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:11 pm

  If you have been reading the coverage of the debate within the Obama administration about the way ahead in Afghanistan, you quickly noticed much of it hinged on unnamed sources. At the Pentagon, they were not hard to find…until now. The military wants a decision about what to in Afghanistan as they feel is time is wasting away. Indeed, violence against Afghans and troops alike are at their highest levels of this eight-year war. And a resurgent Taliban is taking over large swaths of the country. Some feel the president is not properly supporting his top commander in Afghanistan, who has…

• The facts on Fort Hood

  Nancy Youssef

  10 Nov 2009 | 12:31 pm

  Let me begin by saying I know how overwhelming the events at Fort Hood have been for all those who serve. The idea that someone, whatever his reasons, would shoot fellow soldiers hits the military like “a punch in the gut,” as so many soldiers have said to me. I understand that times like these are incredibly stressful for those tasked to get information out as quickly as possible. That said, I feel compelled as a journalist to explain to you, dear reader, why you have been hearing so many conflicting stats and details about the incident;  the Army’s effort to get details out on this…

• Gates gets H1N1 vaccine; Obama does not

  Nancy Youssef

  4 Nov 2009 | 2:10 pm

  Believe of not, who gets an H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine – and who chooses not to in light of the vaccine shortage – has become a political issue in this town.  The White House announced that President and Mrs. Obama would not get the vaccine until “needs of the priority groups identified by the CDC – including young people under the age of 24, pregnant women, and people with underlying conditions – have been met.”  A White House physician administered vaccines obtained through the D.C. Department of Health to the Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha.  On Wednesday, Pentagon…

• 
  Wonkette

• Whoa Hey, Dick Cheney Guest-Hosted ‘Hardball’

  Jim Newell

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

  Chris Matthews, he’s goin’ nuts. Meh. Most of the “issues” on this laundry list are trivial, gossipy tabloid fodder. The only Serious policy item would have to be, in Tweety’s words, “Why DID he bow to that Japanese emperor?” It’s unclear which of the Japanese emperors he’s referring to. [YouTube]

• David Vitter’s Just Got To Grab Some Cash Quickly, He’ll Be Right Back

  Jim Newell

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm

  A Wonkette airport ATM-monitoring operative ran into profound Sen. David Vitter last night at Reagan National, and they even shared a flight! HE SHOULD BE READING THE BILL THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. Not only did he withdraw cash from an ATM — he probably changed his mind in the heat of the moment and did want the extra kinky stuff, which ain’t cheap — but our operative claims he threw another of his trademark airport fits: “LOL…he is so seriously harassing a gate person.. the flight is 2 hours late….LOL…wait, no!!! he disappeared…damnit.”…

• Columbia Heights Still Terrifying As Usual

  Riley Waggaman

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:04 pm

  Columbia Heights: Where white hipsters can watch from a comfortable distance as low-income minorities are murdered. This is what scholars call the “two cities” problem. [Why I Hate DC] (more…) Michelle Obama indoctrinates children with bananas and tangerines. [Washington Times] Montgomery County is livin’ on the dole. [Washington Examiner] For DC perverts, even simple things like escalators have pervy potential. [Holla Back DC]

• Hey, Buttars, Let The Kid Decide What He Wants For Himself, Okay?

  Jim Newell

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pm

  Did you see this YouTube yet! It involves the latest comical statement from America’s most famous super-homophobic state senator, Chris Buttars of Utah: “I meet with the gays here and there. They were in my house two weeks ago. I don’t mind gays. But I don’t want ‘em stuffing it down my throat all the time. Certainly not in my kid’s face.” Ha ha “they were in my house two weeks ago” might be better than the sexual double entendre that follows. Saw a few of ‘em in mah cupboard and had to lay a few more traps; got ‘em good…

• Small Figurines Teach People Important Lessons

  Arielle Fleisher

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:10 pm

  Today, November 20 through Thursday, January 3: If you’ve ever fallen victim to being set up on a blind date by your father, you’ll love the play The Fantasticks. Its got meddlesome parents, singing, dancing, and Christmas lights! [Arena Stage] (more…) Opening Tuesday, November 24: Family time is fun time! If you’re braving a visit from dear old mom and dad for Thanksgiving, take them to see August Osage County, a play about a … dysfunctional family! It will definitely put you in the holiday mood! [Kennedy Center] Saturday, November 21: The Redskins marching band…

• 
  Hot Air

• Skelton demands hearing on KSM trial

  Ed Morrissey

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  The chair of the House Armed Services Committee has sent a letter demanding the appearance of Attorney General Eric Holder to explain his decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators in federal court.  Rep. [...] Read the rest »

• NARN, the Cloture Edition!

  Ed Morrissey

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am

  The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with our eight-hour-long broadcast schedule starting at 9 am CT. [...] Read the rest »

• Quotes of the day

  Allahpundit

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm

  “New guidelines for cervical cancer screening say women should delay their first Pap test until age 21, and be screened less often than recommended in the past… [...] Read the rest »

• Chris Matthews: Is Obama just too darned intellectual?

  Allahpundit

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:51 pm

  Believe it or not, he’s not just spinning here. [...] Read the rest »

• Poll: Only 44% think Fort Hood murders were an act of terrorism

  Allahpundit

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:10 pm

  It’s tempting to blame this on the media for shoving the dopey PTSD narrative down people’s throats initially, but the hard fact of the matter is that there’s been plenty of reporting on the terrorism angle by now. [...] Read the rest »

• 
  MOMocrats™

• Oh RNC, honestly (or not!)? How the RNC asks people to work the system against health care reform

  Julie Pippert

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pm

  This afternoon, I received the following message from the RNC:Subject: Your Call Can Make the Difference ** URGENT CALL TO ACTION ** After months working in secret behind closed doors, Harry Reid this week finally unveiled his 2,074-page government-run health care plan. His plan would increase health care premiums, increase taxes on families and small businesses by half a trillion dollars, cut Medicare by another half trillion dollars, and allow federal funds to be used for abortions. Click here for 10 things you should know about the bill. Harry Reid has scheduled a critical vote this…

• The MOMocrats want you to Vote Sarah!

  Julie Pippert

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:57 pm

  Yeah, we know what you're thinking... but really, do you think we would ban all Sarahs from getting our votes? That would be like assuming all Husseins are somehow bad. A vote for Sarah is a vote for a friend, a colleague, a fellow MOMocrat!We want to send Sarah to the Winter Olympics! Sarah Granger is one of five semi-finalists in a contest for women bloggers to win an awesome set of trips to blog the Computers & Electronics Show in January and the Olympics in February. (How amazing is that! And how amazing would that be! You can bet she'd share her experiences with us through blogging,…

• Et tu, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists?

  Julie Pippert

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am

  The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued new guidelines for pap smears, which screen for cervical cancer. Previously, they suggested beginning testing after becoming sexually active and testing annually starting in your twenties. Now, they say women in their 20s only need to be checked every two years and testing should begin after 21. Women in their thirties should only be tested every three years after three clear test results, according to the new guidelines. The new guidelines are based on the newer science, which also shows that unlike other cancers,…

• Go Read: US-China Tussles Over Currency Exchange

  Cynematic

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:39 pm

  You may have heard that next week President Obama will be visiting Asia, and significantly, the People's Republic of China. One big bone of contention is the way China pegs its Yuan (or RenMinBi) to the US Dollar. For a long time, it was at 8Y : $1USD. Currently it seems to be running 7:1. The US has been trying to get China to change the practice, and this post from Campaign for America's Future explains why.Would prices go up at Walmart if China changed its currency to reflect the dollar's relative weakening worldwide? Probably. But maybe, as even Treasury Secretary Geithner has said,…

• Go Read It: US Catholic Conference of Bishops' Hypocrisy on Federal Tax Dollars & the Stupak-Pitts Amendment

  Cynematic

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm

  Not all Catholics believe the exact same thing. There are Catholics for Choice, Catholics who use contraception, and then...there's the US Conference on Catholic Bishops, which was an active, energetic force lobbying politicians to pass Stu-Pitts prior to the recent House vote on the Affordable Health Care for All Act. Strongly opposed to a woman's right to decide when and if to terminate a pregnancy, the USCCB receives 67% of its budget in federal tax dollars to help fund hospitals and other good works with secular impact operated by the Catholic church, and is itself charged with separating…

• 
  NPR

• Politics, Breast Health Have A Long History Together

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pm

  Meddling in medical recommendations is nothing new for politicians» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Evidence-Based Medicine: Hard For Some To Swallow

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pm

  Based on studies, two panels of medical experts this week recommended fewer screening tests for breast and cervical cancer. But people don't always want to do what the data say to do.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Week In Politics Examined

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm

  Senate Democrats hoped to have enough votes this week to pass a health care bill, Obama Cabinet officials faced hostile lawmakers on Capitol Hill and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-awaited book hit bookstores. Political analysts E.J. Dionne, of The Washington Post, and David Brooks, of The New York Times, offer their insight.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Health Care Concessions A Bow To Moderates

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  The public option looms large in the minds of voters and certain lawmakers, but not so much in the Senate health care bill. There it limits eligibility, kicks in late, includes an opt-out provision for states, and is expected to cost more than private plans. Leaders say they had to weaken it to round up the 60 votes they need to move the bill forward. Still, its inclusion continues to jeopardize needed support for passage, because several members of the Democratic caucus adamantly oppose any public option. » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Senate Ethics Committee: No Punishment For Burris

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:26 am

  The Senate Ethics Committee on Friday admonished Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., for making "inconsistent, misleading or incomplete" statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the seat once held by Barack Obama. The committee didn't recommend any punishment.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• 
  FamousDC

• Closing Bell: Flash Mob

  nolongerfamous

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  Share on Facebook Related posts:Closing Bell: AloneClosing Bell: The CreeperClosing Bell: SeeBolt Related posts:Closing Bell: AloneClosing Bell: The CreeperClosing Bell: SeeBolt

• The Ballad of Joseph Cao

  nolongerfamous

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  We thought the same thing. One, and only one, Republican broke ranks to vote for the health reform bill in the House. Dude needed a song. Worth the watch. Share on Facebook Related posts:Please Release Me: Brain SmartsBarney: He’s What We Call A Dinosaur SensationIs There an Audio Version? Related posts:Please Release Me: Brain SmartsBarney: He’s What We Call A Dinosaur SensationIs There an Audio Version?

• Enjoy the Weekend: Georgetown Edition

  fdc

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

  Share on Facebook Related posts:FamousDC Weekend ReviewWho Doesn’t Enjoy a Good Train Wreck?The Famous are in DC this weekend… Related posts:FamousDC Weekend ReviewWho Doesn’t Enjoy a Good Train Wreck?The Famous are in DC this weekend…

• Famous Friday [Round Up]

  fdc

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am

  Sarah Palin’s book launched, New Moon hysteria took Washington by storm, Chris Gindlesperger is celebrating a birthday Saturday, the Washington Blade shut down, Wolf Blitzer watched Lebron James, Oprah announced that she’s ending her TV show, a double entendre can be taken two ways, Congressman Peter DeFazio ain’t on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s Christmas card [...] Related posts:Famous Friday [Round-up]Famous Friday [Round Up]Famous Friday [Round Up]

• Like the Rest of Congress, Senate Voice Mail Message System Broken

  nolongerfamous

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:21 am

  This email is going around the Senate.  Staff assistants rejoice. The Senate voice mail system is not working because of all of the health care calls to the Senate right now. The calls are blowing the system out. Not much they can do about it – we’ll just have to wait until the calls [...] Related posts:Chris Cooley Doesn’t Do Hate MailSenate Staffers Really Bored Right NowTom DeLay Powers On, Dances With Two Broken Feet

• 
  Electoral-vote.com

• Thu, Nov. 19 Electoral Vote Predictor

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Reid Releases Health-Care-Reform Bill     Permalink After nearly a year of deliberations, majority leader Harry Reid released the full text of the Senate's health-care bill, which consists of the Finance Committee Bill merged with the HELP Committee bill and some new twists. Here are some key features of the 2074-page (doubled-spaced) bill: Insurance exchanges will be set up in 2014 to help the uninsured get coverage. A public option will be available on these exchanges. Anyone below 133% of the federal poverty line will be eligible for Medicaid. Anyone between 133% and 300% of…

• Tue, Nov. 17 Electoral Vote Predictor

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Many People Have Wrong Expectations about the Health-Reform Bill     Permalink Except for people who have really been following the health-reform debate in detail, many people have do not have a good idea of what it will really mean. Politico has a round-up of some common misconceptions a lot of people have about the bill Given all the screaming and yelling about it, it is not surprising that even if a bill passes, it will not be what many people expect. Here are some of the most common misconceptions. Everyone can choose the public option (No: only about 30 million will be…

• Wed, Nov. 11 Electoral Vote Predictor

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Preview of the Top 2010 Senate Races     Permalink While the Senate is gradually moving towards a health care bill, let's look at the top 2010 Senate races, that is, the seats most likely to change party. First we look at the Democratic seats that might switch (in alphabetical order) then the Republican-held seats, again in alphabetical order. At this point in time, it is much too hard to guess which ones will be the toughest battles. In many cases the two candidates aren't even known yet. Click here for full story

• Wed, Nov. 04 Electoral Vote Predictor

  4 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Virginia and New Jersey Follow Historical Pattern     Permalink Republicans Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie won their gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. With stories spinning in all directions about the predictive value of yesterday's elections, perhaps a look at the historical record of the Virginia and New Jersey off-year elections will prove of interest. In all eight gubernatorial elections since Ronald Reagan's first term, Virginia has given the party of the incumbent President a loss. In New Jersey, the President's party has lost six…

• Fri, Oct. 30 Electoral Vote Predictor

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

  House Health-Care Bill Unveiled     Permalink Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rolled out a $896 billion dollar health-care reform bill (HR 3962) that will go to the House floor for an up-or-down vote within 2 weeks. A summary has been posted online. Some of the key features include: Coverage People who like their current plan may keep it. Individuals not covered and some small business may buy insurance at new exchanges. One of the offerings at these exchanges will be a nonprofit public plan. A committee chaired by the Surgeon General will draw up a list of benefits all…

• 
  mcclatchydc.com: Politics

• Will health care even get past Senate's starting gate?

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:35 pm

  WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to approve on Saturday the start of a historic debate over health care legislation aimed at making coverage easier, less expensive to obtain and harder to lose.

• For central California lawmakers, fundraising never stops

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

  WASHINGTON — The dollar chase never stops for California incumbents and challengers alike, who keep busy raising campaign funds for themselves and for others.

• Cosmetic surgeons frown on Senate's 'botax' plan

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

  WASHINGTON — If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The "botax" may be on the way.

• Girl accuses Sacramento mayor of offering her hush money

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:27 pm

  Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson offered to pay $1,000 a month to one of three girls who had accused him of inappropriately touching her while she was involved in his St. HOPE Hood Corps program, the girl told federal agents during their investigation of Johnson's nonprofit St. HOPE organization last year.

• Lawmaker asks people to stop complaining, and gets an earful

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

  WASHINGTON — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver wanted people to stop complaining for a day and count their blessings.

• 
  MSNBC: MEET THE PRESS

• Sunday's Meet the Press guest list

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

• Nov. 15: Clinton, Duncan, Gingrich, Sharpton

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:04 am

  Transcript of the November 15, 2009 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press," featuring Hillary Clinton, Arne Duncan, Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton.

• Nov. 8: Casey, Barbour, Rendell, roundtable, Brokaw

  8 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am

  Transcript of the November 8, 2009 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press," featuring George Casey, Haley Barbour, Ed Rendell, David Brooks, E.J. Dionne, Rachel Maddow, Ed Gillespie and Tom Brokaw.

• Nov. 1: Tim Geithner, David Plouffe, roundtable

  1 Nov 2009 | 9:12 am

  Transcript of the November 1, 2009 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press," featuring Tim Geithner, David Plouffe, Jon Krakauer, Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell.

• Oct. 25: Cornyn, Schumer, Burnett, Sorkin, roundtable

  25 Oct 2009 | 9:18 am

  Transcript of the October 25, 2009 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press," featuring John Cornyn, Charles Schumer, Erin Burnett, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jane Mayer, Joe Scarborough, Dan Senor and Tavis Smiley.

• 
  MyDD

• Tea Party, The Movie

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:22 am

  Warning: Place all liquids aside and away from your computer when watching the above trailer for Tea Party: The Documentary Film. Sadly, the above is not a joke. The narration is priceless. And it should come as no surprise that Dick Armey's Freedom Works is assisting in the marketing of the film. Congressman Peter DeFazio warned the other day that without a new focus on jobs and small business from the White House "a faux populist" Republicanism would fill the void come 2010. Well, that's what we have to look forward to, a government of clowns. On a more serious note, the New York Times…

• Open Thread

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pm

  Consider this an open thread... What's on your mind tonight?Tags: Open Thread (all tags)

• House 2010: The Money Chase

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:34 pm

  Not sure how the Republicans are supposed to retake the House if the Democrats have more than five times more money in the bank than they do. The DCCC, like its GOP counterpart, spent more than it took in during Oct., thanks to the expensive NY-23 special election. Still, it outraised the NRCC, as the Dem cmte took in $3.8M last month. It also outspent the NRCC, shelling out nearly $4M (about $1.1M of which aided now-Rep. Bill Owens' (D) winning campaign). While the DCCC has more debt than the NRCC ($3.3M-$2M), it has a huge cash-on-hand edge. At the end of Oct., the DCCC had $14.5M in the…

• NV-SEN: Not Just Oppo

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm

  Hotline oddly frames Reid's reelection as a battle of opposition research: Reid faces dismal approval ratings -- the latest survey, conducted by the independent Research 2000 for the Progressive Change Campaign Cmte, showed just 35% of Nevadans have a favorable opinion of the senior senator, while 54% see him unfavorably. What's more, he trails the two GOP challengers he has been matched against in public polls. That leaves most political observers to conclude that Reid's only path to victory is to follow NJ Gov. Jon Corzine's (D) footsteps. Corzine, who was never able to move his numbers…

• The Election of 1816: America's First Anti-Incumbency Election

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am

  By 1816, the American Republic began to emerge from the turmoil of the War of 1812, a war that the United States effectively lost though because of the Battle of New Orleans, which actually came after the peace treaty had been signed, many Americans seem to think we won the war. The British burnt Washington to the ground. James Madison had to flee for his life. The US invasion of Canada ended in a hasty retreat. New England threatened succession. And political disputes between North and South over tariffs and slavery were growing ever more bitter. American elections from 1796 through the…

• 
  The Economist: Daily news and views

• This week's top stories [20 November 2009]

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Our top articles ranked by reader popularity.The Spanish prisonersAny drop to drink?Dollars, cents and sensibilityImposing limitsThis week's top stories [13 November 2009]The week aheadPleased to meet youWell connectedA job to doThe rise of slime

• Sod it

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:48 pm

  The latest plastic pitches are a goal-scorer’s delightIT’S official: the grass is greener in Europe. International football’s governing body, FIFA, has ruled that the soccer pitches in South Africa where the World Cup will be played next summer are not fit enough for the month-long competition. Pitches planted with locally grown kikuyu grass will have to be dug up and replanted with lush European rye grass. No matter that the European turf, bred for a damper and cooler climate, will require more water, fertiliser and maintenance. FIFA is adamant: the hardy local stuff is not…

• Name a famous Belgian

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:17 am

  Two minor but competent figures will be president and high representative of the EUA MAN who has been Belgian prime minister for less than a year and a British technocrat who has never held elected office were chosen by European Union leaders on Thursday November 19th to represent their 27 countries around the world, and lead their policymaking at the highest level. It seems odd to appoint people as little-known as Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton to such big jobs. For nearly a decade, EU politicians have been wrangling about a new rule book, calling for Europe to equip itself with…

• Settling for less

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:57 am

  The latest row over Israeli settlements in Palestinian territoryBINYAMIN NETANYAHU, Israel’s prime minister, came under pressure this week when news leaked of a new plan to build 900 homes in the occupied Jerusalem suburb of Gilo. His aides say that he knew nothing about the scheme before a local planning committee considered it.True or not, the latest settlement expansion is exasperating for those who have been involved, for several months, in negotiations between the United States and Israel. Mr Netanyahu’s colleagues are bristling that previous efforts to prevent new building…

• Caught early

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:49 am

  Despite more suspected jihadist terrorist plots on western soil, there are still few attacks THE number of jihadist terror plots in Europe, North America and Australia has risen alarmingly in 2009, according to a report from Control Risks, a security consultancy. But plots are rarely successful, probably because of improved gathering and sharing of intelligence, better security (especially at airports) and bad planning. According to newspaper reports and court records, seven planned attacks were exposed between January and October this year and only one (a small and inconsequential attack on…

• 
  Democracy Now!

• Israel Under Widespread International Criticism for Settlement Expansion Plan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:51 am

  Israel is coming under widespread international criticism for its plan to engage in a new round of illegal settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land. Israel says it will build 900 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority leaders began a renewed effort last week to win international support for formal Security Council endorsement of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders. We speak with UCLA professor Saree Makdisi, author of Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. [includes rush transcript]

• On 20th Anniversary of Killings of 6 Jesuit Priests by US-Backed Salvadoran Forces, Thousands to Protest "School of the Assassins" at Ft. Benning

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

  Thousands are gathering at Fort Benning in Georgia this weekend for the annual protest to shut down the US Army training center dubbed by critics as the “School of the Assassins” for having trained some of the worst human rights violators in Latin America. This year’s protest will mark the twentieth anniversary of the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador by the US-backed Salvadoran military. It comes days after the priests were posthumously bestowed El Salvador’s highest civilian award, marking the first time the Salvadoran government has honored the priests…

• As UC Regents Approve Major Tuition Hike, Students, Faculty Decry Erosion of Public Education in CA and Nationwide

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  Amid thousands of student protesters and armed police standing guard, the University of California’s Board of Regents has approved a 32 percent increase in student fees. The vote will bring the total cost of a UC education to more than $10,000 per year for the first time. We discuss the protests and the growing privatization of public education with UCLA student activist Zen Dochterman and the president of the UC American Federation of Teachers, Bob Samuels. [includes rush transcript]

• Headlines for November 20, 2009

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record HighSiding with Katrina Victims, Ruling Faults Army Corps for New Orleans FloodingUS: Security Council Should Define Aggression for ICC8 Killed in Suspected US Drone Attack in Pakistan16 Killed in Afghan BombingWhite House: No Afghan Troop Decision Before Thanksgiving HolidayVietnam Vet Holds Antiwar Fast Outside White HouseUN: Afghanistan World's Most Dangerous Nation for ChildrenUS Ratification Urged on 20th Anniversary of Children's Rights ConventionBan Calls for $30B in Climate Aid to Poor NationsGeithner Rejects Calls for Resignation Before Congressional…

• As Wall Street Posts Record Profits and US Hunger Rate Grows, Robert Scheer Asks: "Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?"

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  A pair of new government reports released this week paint a startling picture more than a year after the economic meltdown. On Tuesday, the New York Comptroller Office said Wall Street profits are set to exceed the record set three years ago. The four largest firms took in $22.5 billion in profits through September. Meanwhile, far more people are going hungry in the United States than previously thought. The Department of Agriculture estimates 50 million Americans, including a quarter of all children, struggled to get enough to eat last year. We speak to veteran journalist Robert Scheer.

• 
  NYT: The Caucus

• The Saturday Word: A Rare Senate Session

  By JANIE LORBER

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:28 am

  In his comments on Saturday morning -- dealing largely with his Asia trip -- President Obama devoted not a word to the elephant in the room - the health care bill the Senate will vote on tonight.

• White House Cites Bipartisan Support

  By THE NEW YORK TIMES

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  Tommy Thompson and Richard Gephardt weigh in.

• Ethics Panel Admonishes Senator Burris

  By CARL HULSE

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:19 am

  The appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama gets scrutiny from the Senate Ethics Committee.

• The Early Word: Weekend Health Work

  By BERNIE BECKER

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:29 am

  Two weeks from the big House vote on health care, the Senate begins its votes -- on a Saturday.

• Obama Has a Job for Dana Perino. Really.

  By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:53 pm

  The woman who faced the press for President George W. Bush is chosen for a seat on the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

• 
  Outside The Beltway | OTB

• Hacked Climate Scientists Emails Reveal Truth

  James Joyner

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  The University of East Anglia mail server was hacked earlier in the week and a string of private correspondences between esteemed climate scientists were published.  In addition to some juicy internecine gossip becoming embarrassingly public, a few of the messages seem to reveal doubts about the evidence for global warming and at least one refers to a statistical “trick” being used to hide lower-than-predicted surface temperatures in recent years.  James Delingpole dubs this “Climategate” and pronounces it “the final nail in the coffin of ‘Anthropogenic…

• Obama, the Recession, and Polls

  James Joyner

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pm

  A CNN poll released today finds that “opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting.”  According to the survey, “38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country’s current economic problems. That’s down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 percent now blame the Democrats for the recession, up 6 points from May. Twenty-seven percent now say both parties are responsible for the economic mess.” Similarly, the Gallup tracking poll has President Obama dipping…

• Giuliani Running for Senate, Not Governor

  James Joyner

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:52 am

  Yesterday, the NYT and other outlets reported that former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided against running for governor of New York.  But the Daily News is reporting that he is instead “very likely” to run in the special election to fill the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat. The Republican heavyweight was considered the GOP’s best shot at reclaiming the governor’s mansion. The only declared candidate on the Republican side is little-known former Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio. One source said Giuliani is prepared to run for U.S. Senate…

• OTB Latenight – The Jesus & Mary Chain

  Dodd

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pm

• Fox Fake Crowd Videos

  James Joyner

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm

  For the second time in a week, Fox News has been caught using old video to give the false impression of larger-than-actual turnout at appearances of politicos they supported.  Sufficiently embarrassed at having been caught, Fox executives are promising “serious disciplinary action” for those responsible. While the incidents add fuel to the fire that Fox is a Republican shill outlet rather than real news — and there’s growing truth to that charge — the real story here is that Fox has joined the larger trend in broadcast journalist of becoming a hype machine. I…

• 
  Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

• Freedom’s Fight: Part II

  editor@truthdig.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:46 pm

  Truthdig is pleased to present the second excerpt from Gary Phillips’ novel “Freedom’s Fight,” which interweaves real historical figures and situations in a fictive narrative about World War II, focusing not just on the black soldier’s struggle, but also on the debates various civil rights groups had about the war stateside. READ THE WHOLE ITEMRelated Entries November 20, 2009 Lou Dobbs for President? November 20, 2009 Battlefield in the War of Ideas November 20, 2009 Intelligentsia Against Intelligence November 20, 2009 Claire Wasserman on Europe’s Islamic Immigrants November…

• ‘Left, Right & Center’: The Geithner-Summers Backlash; Is Palin Dangerous?

  editor@truthdig.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

  At long last, it seems that members of Congress, of left- and right-leaning persuasions alike, are harboring serious doubts about a couple of key players on President Barack Obama’s economic task force. The right-leaning Tony Blankley thinks that this signals the cyclical, and helpful, breakdown of hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, Robert Scheer thinks Sarah Palin is still scary. READ THE WHOLE ITEMRelated Entries November 20, 2009 Lou Dobbs for President? November 20, 2009 Battlefield in the War of Ideas November 20, 2009 Intelligentsia Against Intelligence November 20,…

• Lou Dobbs for President?

  editor@truthdig.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pm

  Now that he’s been cut loose from his contract at CNN, former anchor Lou Dobbs is free to do his thing unencumbered by any constraints imposed by media bosses or by archaic notions of journalistic objectivity. What, you might wonder, would “his thing” be? Well, it seems as if this self-declared champion of the middle class isn’t ruling out a run for office ... yes, even that office.  —KA Reuters: A week after abruptly quitting his longtime job as a CNN television news host and commentator, Lou Dobbs said on Thursday he is considering career options including…

• Obama Warns of Iran Sanctions

  editor@truthdig.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

  President Barack Obama has signaled an escalation in the ongoing nuclear dispute with Iran, warning that punitive measures could come soon after Tehran rejected a proposal to send its enriched uranium to Russia or France for further processing. The Guardian: Barack Obama has signalled a further escalation in the crisis over Iran’s nuclear ambitions by serving notice that punitive measures could be agreed “within weeks”. Obama used a speech in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, to warn that the lesson of dealing with neighbouring North Korea was that Tehran must meet a…

• YouTube Videos to Wear Captions

  editor@truthdig.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am

  In a boon for the hearing-impaired as well as non-English speakers, Google has announced it will soon plug in new technology that automatically adds text captions to many videos on its YouTube site. It will allow videos to be searched through text, rather than keywords. The New York Times: In the first major step toward making millions of videos on YouTube accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google unveiled new technologies on Thursday that will automatically bring text captions to many videos on the site. The technology will also open YouTube videos to a wider foreign market and…

• 
  PunditMom

• Is Sarah Palin Creating Her Own Sexism?

  PunditMom

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:54 am

  My gut reaction when I saw the cover of Newsweek with Sarah Palin in her tight runner’s shorts, coyly posed in that former beauty queen stance, I was ready to throw something heavy at editor-in-chief Jon Meachem. Looking at the impact that the former Alaska Governor is having on the political world now is fair.  Putting her on the cover of a major news magazine in a tight, revealing outfit makes me wonder — would they do this to any notable woman given the chance? The buzz on the cover story has been mixed.  The Women’s Media Center, which created a video during the 2008…

• Three Reasons I Think My Head Will Explode

  PunditMom

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:15 am

  I usually do a good job of sticking to one topic in any given post.  But there is so much going on at the moment, I feel like my head will explode: 1. My very new friend Anissa, whom I’ve admired from a afar in the blogosphere for some time, had a stroke this week.  She’s 35.  And has a husband and three kids.  And loads of friends who are praying for her.  I can’t get my head around this one.  How is this even possible?  If you want to see if there’s a little something you can do to help her family, you can take a look here. 2. Other things I can’t…

• The New Kirtsy Book’s Here! The New Kirtsy Book’s Here!

  PunditMom

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:42 am

  Today, I feel like Steve Martin in the movie, The Jerk. No, I’m not feeling like a jerk. Remember the scene when the new phone book arrives? The mere fact of seeing his name in print brings out a joyous rant: — “The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here! I’m SOMEBODY!” Something is here that is SO much better than the phone book! The new Kirtsy book’s here! The new Kirtsy book’s here! Obviously, I have a little more self-confidence than Steve Martin’s character, so I already know I’m somebody. But I’m too, too…

• Sarah Palin: Going Rogue All the Way to the White House?

  PunditMom

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:17 am

  Sarah Palin in 2012?  Some are chuckling, but they might want to rethink their take on the first woman on a GOP presidential ticket. Conservative pundit David Brooks laughed out loud at the suggestion, calling her a “joke”.  Others point to 2008 wannabes Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee as more qualified and doing better in polls than Palin when people talk about GOP Presidential hopefuls.  Of course, most thought that quitting her day job as Alaska Governor was the death knell for her political career, but I think this is just the beginning of Palin’s national political…

• I Want to Host the Hillary/Sarah Coffee Klatsch

  PunditMom

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:20 am

  As she’s hawking her forthcoming book, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin says she ’s open to a sit down with Hillary Clinton! You say that’ll never happen?  They’re too far apart on the issues?  I don’t know — they both probably feel like the brakes were put on their political careers by Barack Obama.  They’re both moms and they’ve both worked hard to get to where they are today. Granted, Hillary Clinton has gone the more traditional route of getting an Ivy League education and serving at least one full term for a high-profile elective office, but…

• 
  Top Stories from CQ

• Romney Leads In PAC Fundraising

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am

  After spending millions of his own money during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney apparently has learned a thing or two about fundraising.

• Ethics Panel Admonishes Burris but Clears Him of Legal Wrongdoing

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:56 am

  Sen. Roland W. Burris provided misleading information to investigators and had inappropriate phone calls with former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, but did not violate the law, the Senate’s ethics committee said Friday.

• Senate Leaders ‘Not Assuming a Thing’ About Health Bill Vote

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:54 am

  The Senate opened a two-day debate on its health care overhaul bill amid indications Friday morning that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is closing in on the 60 votes he needs to overcome an anticipated Republican filibuster and bring the measure to the floor.

• Grassley Criticizes Handling of Obama Nominees

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:51 am

  The Senate Finance Committee’s top Republican slammed the Obama administration and some Democrats on Friday for seeking confirmation of several government nominees who have tax problems.

• Democrats Propose Surtax to Cover War Costs

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:43 am

  Senior House Democrats have introduced legislation that would impose a surtax beginning in 2011 to cover the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• 
  Think Progress

• Speaking with Palin, Dennis Miller transitions from calling Newsweek cover ’sexist’ to calling Hillary Clinton ugly.

  Matt Corley

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

  Earlier this week, Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page that Newsweek’s choice to use a Runner’s World photo of her in running shorts for its cover was “unfortunate” and “sexist.” Palin’s criticism has since been echoed on both the left and right. Interviewing Palin on his radio show yesterday, Dennis Miller added his voice to those calling the cover “sexist.” But he then did something that most of the other critics haven’t done. He immediately followed it with a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that could also be…

• Dobbs Calls Himself Latinos’ ‘Greatest Friend,’ Denies Tying Leprosy To Undocumented Immigrants

  anill

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pm

  Today in an interview with Maria Celeste on Telemundo’s Al Rojo Vivo, ousted CNN anchor Lou Dobbs denied ever erroneously claiming that undocumented immigrants are bringing leprosy to the United States. Instead he attacked Celeste for bringing up reports that he aired on his show in the past. From interview (translated from Spanish): DOBBS: Let’s be very clear: I did not support that report, in fact we corrected that report. And secondly, in fairness to me, I never said a word about leprosy and undocumented immigrants as you call them. My correspondent on our broadcast…

• New Birther Billboard In Colorado Features Picture Of Obama And Asks ‘President Or Jihad?’

  Alex Seitz-Wald

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

  Today, a new birther billboard went up above Wolf Automotive off I-70 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The sign has a picture of President Obama wearing a turban, asking, “President or Jihad?” and exhorting, “Wake up America! Remember Fort Hood”: ThinkProgress spoke with Phil Wolf, the owner of the car dealership. He said that the billboard is his personal project because he believes the American people have a right to know the facts about the president: I’m probably like a lot of other people that have asked the question, I want to know who our president is. And to…

• Michigan Town Rejects Liz Cheney’s ‘Fearmongering’ And Welcomes Guantanamo Detainees

  Zaid Jilani

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm

  Recently, the Liz Cheney-founded right-wing advocacy group Keep America Safe released a mini-documentary that features several residents of Standish, Michigan, speaking out against a possible transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a prison in the city. The video ominously warns that the transfer would turn the town into “Guantanamo North” and claims that Standish residents are dead set against moving Guantanamo detainees to their city. Watch it: Yet, as the Plum Line’s Greg Sargent reports, the video poorly represents the views of the residents of Standish. He…

• GOP Lawmakers Complain About Revised Mammogram Guidelines While Opposing Requirements For More Tests

  Matt Corley

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm

  On Wednesday, a group of women GOP lawmakers held a press conference to denounce a new recommendation by the federal Preventive Services Task Force that women receive mammograms less frequently. “This is how rationing begins,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). “This is the little toe in the edge of the water.” “Women in particular may lose a great deal of clout in decision making,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). “We don’t know how far government will go in this bureaucracy,” she added, noting that they “want to empower…

• 
  Slate Magazine

• Made in China—and sold there, too.

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:18 am

  These are grim times for American executives. The public is angry, and consumers are holding on to every nickel. It's hard to escape the sense that the economic future may be less comfortable than the past. But not all American managers are gloomy. "Optimism is higher than it was last year," says Brenda Lei Foster, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. A survey of its 370 members found that more than 90 percent are optimistic about the next five years. The reason: Instead of simply shipping goods made in China back to the United States, "companies here [are] focusing on…

• Geithner is not going anywhere.

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  A summary of what's in the major publications.[more ...]

• Why Sarah Palin is unlikely to be the future of the Republican Party.

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:44 pm

  The future of the Republican Party will be shaped by a governor—but it's not likely to be Sarah Palin. The twin poles of the Republican Party were on display this week. One was at a Republican Governors Association meeting in Texas. The other was on the airwaves across the country as Palin methodically went rogue.[more ...] Republican - Sarah Palin - United States - Texas - Country music

• What to drink on Thanksgiving: Napa cabernet.

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Cabernet sauvignon—and particularly the cabernet produced in California's Napa Valley—is the signature American wine. When a Napa cab, the 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, beat out some leading French wines in the Judgment of Paris, it heralded the coming-of-age of American viticulture and gave the phrase Napa cabernet international cachet. Nowadays, however, that phrase is more apt to elicit snickers than praise; in the minds of many consumers, it has become synonymous with overwrought, overhyped, and overpriced wines. Indeed, scorning Napa cabernets is almost as fashionable as dumping on…

• How to score chicks on the Disney Channel.

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:38 pm

  The Suite Life on Deck (Disney Channel, Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET) is a follow-up to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, itself a kiddie sitcom about identical-twin boys kicking it Eloise-style at a Boston hotel. Last week, the sequel ranked as the No. 4 show on cable and No. 1 overall among children ages 6 to 11. Should children actually be watching The Suite Life? This columnist does not pretend to offer parental guidance and, as far as he knows, does not have any 6-year-old kids. But there's an outside chance that he'd prefer to plop his imaginary, rhetorical-device-type offspring in front of…

• 
  MoJo Blog Posts: mojo

• West Va. Chamber of Commerce Plays Dirty With Health Care Reform

  By Kate Sheppard

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

  The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce is playing dirty with health care reform. It's pressuring its homestate Democratic senators, Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, to block health care legislation unless the Obama administration ends what the Chamber calls a "war on coal." The Obama administration and Congress have waged "a growing campaign against the mining and use of coal," said West Virginia Chamber President Steve Roberts in a press release. He cited both the administration's efforts to cut carbon emissions via climate legislation, as well as its tougher enforcement…

• What Will Harry Reid Do?

  By Nick Baumann

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  President Barack Obama talks alone with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Oval Office. (White House photo.)Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won praise on the left for including a public option in the health care bill that he's bringing to the floor of the Senate. But Reid's coming up on a big decision: while he may be able to wrangle the 60 votes to start debate on the bill tomorrow, there's evidence to suggest he many not be able to hold the Democratic caucus together to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate on a bill that includes a public option and move to a final vote. That's…

• The Thanksgiving Doc Dump

  By Nick Baumann

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  One of the big pieces of news that came out of Eric Holder's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday was Holder's promise that the long-awaited Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility report on torture will be out by the end of the month. In practice, that means that the report will probably come out next Wednesday evening (the night before Thanksgiving), next Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving), or, best-case scenario, this evening. It's called a doc dump, and you don't have to tolerate it. Whenever the report does come out, come here and help us read…

• How We Pay for Big Pharma's Malpractice

  By James Ridgeway

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  The main reason we can't get a health reform bill enacted is because the pharmaceutical and insurance industries aren’t happy with their piece of the action. This despite the fact that when politicians talk about cutting costs, what they really mean is cutting services to us so these two big industries can enhance their profitability. One reason drug companies need additional revenue is because employee whistleblowers have found the nerve to report the industry's crooked business practices—leading to multi-million dollar payouts to injured patients plus…

• Bush Administration Officials Defend Holder's Decision on KSM

  By Nick Baumann

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am

  Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith, who both served in the Justice Department during the Bush administration, have an op-ed in Friday's Washington Post defending Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney General. Comey and Goldsmith say Holder's decision to try 9/11 "mastermind" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court was "reasonable," because military commissions really aren't everything the right is cracking them up to be: [Critics of Holder's decision] place undue faith in military commissions as an alternative to civilian trials.... Tne reason commissions have not worked well is that…

• 
  Crooks and Liars

• Mary Matalin "slaps" one on Sarah Palin

  bluegal

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  This morning my crazy thing locator pointed to this pro-Palin oped by Mary Matalin, who pooh-poohs complaints in Palin's book about the rough, nasty and foul-mouthed staffers inside the McCain campaign: Time is the most valuable commodity on a campaign and you just can't waste it thinking about how to choose your words carefully or get your job done more diplomatically. If someone isn't in tears every day, that day wasn't all it could be advancing the campaign. I once witnessed an experienced (big) man slap a professional female colleague across the face over an ad buy... and no one thought…

• Mike's Blog Roundup

  Mike Finnigan

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  A Tiny Revolution: Did Rumsfeld tour a KGB torture museum to pick up useful tips? Welcome Back to Pottersville: Oh! That Kaiser Permanente... Raw Story: Skeptics claim stolen emails prove global warming is a hoax The Progressive Puppy: Fundies plan attacks on lesbian Mayoral candidate during runoff I Am TRex: How the bastards do it NotionsCapital: Expense Account Adultry

• Open Thread

  bluegal

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm

  The appeal of Sarah Palin, worth a thousand words. From Zaius Nation. Open thread below.

• C&L's Late Night Music Club With Devo

  Logan Murphy

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm

  This Devo two-fer from 1980 is a hoot! Girl U Want is by far the strongest of the two songs, Devo at their best. Please forgive the video quality and the occasional audio glitch. I always felt that Devo was more influential than they really got credit for. They have been honored by plenty of bands -- Nirvana, Soundgarden, Sepultura and Pearl Jam, just to name a few.

• Fear Mongers Past - Martin Dies - 1939

  Gordonskene

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  DOWNLOADS: 462 PLAYS: 227 (Martin Dies, 1939 - managed to take the lunatic fringe to the lunatic edge) A few months ago I ran a piece on Martin Dies, and his infamous Dies Committee for Un-American Activities. An earlier incarnation of Joe McCarthy, Dies also managed to slide off the rails with vicious accusations and wild innuendos about people in and around power. Famously fabricating lists of "known communists", many of whom did not exist. But just before World War 2, paranoia was rife. We were dangling on the precipice of getting involved. The war had already started by the time this…

• 
  Scholars and Rogues

• Can nuclear terrorists be deterred?

  Russ Wellen

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:17 pm

  THE DEPROLIFERATOR — As you no doubt know, deterrence is the product of a balance of power — nuclear arsenals, in other words, that are roughly equal. Constrained by the eye-for-an-eye principle, but to the umpteenth power, states armed with nuclear weapons, such as the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and India and Pakistan today, keep their nukes holstered. But terrorists, according to conventional thinking, are immune to deterrence. If they ever obtained nuclear weapons, they’d suffer few qualms about using them. First, they’re secure in the…

• Climategate? Not likely.

  Brian Angliss

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pm

  In case you were unaware, hackers got into the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) servers and published hundreds to thousands of documents and private communications from CRU climate scientists that pertain to climate disruption. And the climate disruption denial and conservative blogs have subsequently gone completely apeshit over it. The Wonk Room has a few of the better quotes from the deniers: “If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW,” says the Telegraph’s James Delingpole. Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey claims the…

• FEC unwisely OKs return to cheap private jet travel by members of Congress

  Dr. Denny

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:19 am

  Let’s say you’re Sen. John Dough. You’re running for re-election. You need money. Often, you have to travel to where the money is to get it. Say, in Los Angeles. So you fly. But you wish to avoid flying commercial. Too much time wasted. Too many hassles, mingling among the proletariat in lines and in the damn crowded plane. Back in the good ol’ days, you’d merely text your old pal I.B. Loaded, CEO of Amalgamated Rules Bender Inc. Loaded’s given you tons of cash over the years for your campaigns. He, his wife and children, his employees, his vendors — all…

• Tournament of Rock – Legends: The Beatles vs Elvis Costello

  Dr. Slammy

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  Results: It was only a matter of time: there are now officially no Gen Xers left in the ToR, as a great Boomer legend waxes U2 … by nearly a two-to-one margin. Wow, on so many levels. The numbers: #5 Neil Young 65%; #1 U2 35%. NY moves on to the Great Eight. Up next, our search for the greatest Baby Boomer band of all time takes you to the Hollywood Bowl region where the heavy favorite awaits another challenger. Can Elvis pull off the biggest upset ever? #1 The Beatles: Listen #4 Elvis Costello: Listen <br /> <a href=”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2280602/”…

• Tournament of Rock – Legends: U2 vs Neil Young

  Dr. Slammy

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  Results: I know. It’s only rock & roll. But I like it. So, too, do our voters, although it was a pretty good race from wire to wire. The numbers: #2 The Rolling Stones 54%; #3 David Bowie 46%. The Stones move on to the Great Eight. Up next, our search for the greatest band of all time takes you to the Red Rocks region. In the red corner, a band that’s had the same lineup since day one. In the blue corner, an artist who has established his greatness in three different incarnations. Get your thinking caps on, kiddies. #1 U2: Listen #5 Neil Young: Listen <br /> <a…

• 
  Power Line

• Clueless in Kabul

  Paul

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:49 pm

  We've noted the Obama administration's penchant for bullying America's allies and kowtowing to its adversaries. This Washington Post story presents another case-in-point -- our treatment of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. As Afghan presidents go, Karzai makes a good mayor of Kabul (in a bad year). Nonetheless, right now the U.S. needs Karzai and Karzai needs the U.S. Thus, in the words of one senior administration official, "it's not sustainable to have a 'War of the Roses' relationship [I assume he means the movie, not the real war] where we basically throw things at each other." This,…

• Global Warming Bombshell

  John

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:17 pm

  The biggest news story of the day is one that has barely begun to break and will continue to reverberate for months or years to come. Someone hacked into a computer at the University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Centre, one of the main centers of anthropogenic global warming research. The hacker downloaded 62 megabytes of data from the server, consisting of around 1,000 emails and a variety of other documents. He uploaded them to an FTP server, where they were available to the public, apparently, for only a few hours. The event is described here. Before the documents disappeared…

• The Obama administration -- ask it no questions, it will tell you some lies

  Paul

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:44 am

  Even congressional Democrats are disgusted with the Obama administration's phony accounting of what the stimulus plan supposedly is accomplishing. Earlier this week, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey lambasted the government's flawed data purporting to show that $160 billion in stimulus spending has created or saved at least 640,000 jobs. In response to reports that the administration has been forced to delete 60,000 jobs from its list and that it claimed to have created 30 jobs in a non-existent congressional district, Obey had this to say: The inaccuracies are outrageous…

• A hack argument

  Paul

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:42 am

  There's a stock column appearing in left-liberal MSM outlets all over the country, The author varies, but the main point is the same: Republican Senators are guilty of "hypocrisy" for attempting to filibuster one of President Obama's judicial nominees after having criticized Democrats for filibustering a host of President Bush's nominees a few years ago. This piece by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post is an example of the genre. But why is it hypocritical for Republicans to resist a regime under which judges nominated by a Republican president need 60 votes for confirmation -- as so many…

• Geithner on the Hot Seat

  John

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:35 pm

  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared before the Joint Economic Committee today. One striking feature of Geithner's testimony was how partisan it was. In keeping with the Obama administration's mantra, he repeatedly tried to cast blame on the Bush administration while failing to acknowledge that when the financial crisis developed, he was the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and as such one of the most influential figures in our financial system. If he saw the crisis coming, or thought that the administration's policies were badly misguided, he had every opportunity to speak…

• 
  Informed Comment: Global Affairs

• BARACK OBAMA DOES TOKYO

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:02 am

  Obama’s Tokyo speech, delivered on November 14, 2009 at a glittering downtown concert hall gave a select audience the chance to savor the president’s trademark rhetoric, read aloud in now-familiar endearing tones, accompanied by slightly jarring Janus-like sideward glances, eyes darting back and forth between twin teleprompters.Designed to set an upbeat tone for the president’s Asia trip, it fell short of his much-hailed Cairo speech as paean to international amity, but served to convince East Asia, despite the late date of his visit, and two distracting wars on the other side of the…

• THAKSIN SHINAWATRA AND CAMBODIA

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:58 pm

  In light of tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra's recent political posturing in Cambodia, which he used as a base to deliberately affront and humiliate the Thai government, all the while being accorded VIP treatment by Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, it is interesting to note that Thaksin's family company was already cutting deals and cultivating "friends" over the border back in the days when he was prime minister of Thailand.The juxtaposition of the two billboards slyly suggests that Shinawatra is, apparently on behalf of the Kingdom of Cambodia, welcoming visitors to Cambodia. Conflict of interest?This…

• Start A War

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:51 am

  A new piece on Swat/Waziristan/Baluchistan and the current Pakistani military operation is up at The Review.The true crisis facing Pakistan is not the Taliban: it is the rupture between the federal state and its constituent parts, and Islamabad’s refusal to accede to the legitimate needs and demands of its citizens in places like Swat and Baluchistan. It is a rupture, indeed, that is written into the very fabric of the state, and the reason why Bangladesh seceded from West Pakistan in 1971, after it was denied political legitimacy by the military regime and then brutalised by an oppressive…

• NEWSPAPERS IN THE NEWS

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:13 pm

  PHILIP J CUNNINGHAMThe latest gloomy news from journalism's battered front lines is that the prestigious New York Times (NYT) is laying off 100 members of its newsroom staff. Paper-and-ink newspapers are in deep trouble, there's no doubt about that. But the NYT, as comprehensive as its news coverage sometimes is, is hardly in a position to offer the real story on its current woes, anymore than a psychoanalyst is able to objectively analyze him or herself.CONTINUE READING HERE...

• Afghanistan: A Special Issue

  23 Oct 2009 | 12:43 am

  The Afghanistan: A Special Issue, Nov 9, 2009, includes a short piece by me. I especially draw your attention to the Priya Satiya and Selig Harrison. And Stephen Walt. And, all.

• 
  The Lang Report

• George Carlin: The Last Words of America’s Greatest Comedian

  Michael Lang

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:08 pm

  For half a century, somewhere in America, night in, night out, George Carlin stood on a stage, raging, berating, sniping, griping, purring questions, snarling answers, kicking holes in the polyester pants of hypocrisy, puking down the nice clean tux of conventional wisdom, convulsing audiences and never failing to do "this real moron thing I do: it's called THINKING!"

• The International Religious Freedom Report

  Michael Lang

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:25 pm

  The International Religious Freedom Report is submitted to Congress annually by the Department of State in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998.

• The Future of Music

  Michael Lang

  29 Oct 2009 | 9:16 pm

  Long ago in a land not so mythical or far away as some would have you believe, certain corporate types over the age of 30 were intent on "engineering" a 'music scene' in San Francisco. It came to pass of an evening (in the vicinity of a stage) that a...

• “Amelia” Earhart: A Different Kind of “Chick Flick”

  Michael Lang

  26 Oct 2009 | 8:18 pm

  I had the opportunity this weekend to catch a movie filled with adventure, romance, suspense and period glamor. As with so many films, the story literally flew out of the pages of our history books and onto the silver screen

• President Obama’s News Capsules

  Michael Lang

  26 Oct 2009 | 4:53 pm

  Here is The Lang Report's weekly array of news capsules on President Barack Obama as he navigates his first year in office.

• 
  Salon: 2008 Election

• Coleman charged court costs, but won't pay yet

  By Alex Koppelman

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  The former senator owes $94,000 to Al Franken, but isn't going to pay up until the Minnesota Supreme Court rules

• Majority of Republicans think ACORN stole election for Obama

  By Alex Koppelman

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  A new poll shows a sizable minority of the country believes the president's election wasn't legitimate

• The true story of how John McCain picked his running mate

  By Alex Koppelman

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  The man in charge of the vetting process explains the appeal of Sarah Palin, and why Joe Lieberman wasn't a good choice for legal reasons.

• Protect young voters -- save campaign finance reform

  By Nate Frentz

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  The Supreme Court may gut laws that were intended to keep corporations from dominating elections with their cash

• Did Edwards staffers plan to sabotage his campaign?

  By Alex Koppelman

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  Aides, concerned that the candidate's affair would mean a GOP victory in 2008, reportedly decided not to let him get the Democratic nomination.

• 
  The Daily Dish: Andrew Sullivan

• The Wages Of Endless War

  Andrew Sullivan

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:02 am

  Andrew Sprung sums up the findings of a new poll:An Oxfam poll of 704 randomly selected Afghans reveals untold suffering-- 1 in 5 say they've been tortured, three quarters have been forced to leave their homes at some point in the endless civil war, 43% have had property destroyed. The survey also has what would seem to be some moderately encouraging findings regarding the counterinsurgency: 70% see unemployment and poverty as a key driver of civil war; 48% blame the government's weakness and corruption; 36% point to the Taliban; 25% to interference by neighboring countries; just 18%…

• The Daily Wrap

  Andrew Sullivan

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:42 pm

  As Palin's marketing tour continued, Jessica Valenti targeted her double standards on gender, Kristol seemed to be scheming, and Larison countered Kristol. We chronicled another odd lie, and featured four near lies here, here, here, and here - the latter of which targets the Dish.In KSM coverage, cognitive dissonance appeared strong on the far right, two former Bush officials voiced support of civilian trials, and David Feige worried about the implications of a "show trial." In other coverage, Andrew was aghast at the GOP's hypocrisy over healthcare spending, Suderman and…

• Palin's Brain Speaks, Ctd

  Andrew Sullivan

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:04 pm

  Larison counters Kristol:Were [Palin] to side openly with McCain in a primary against Hayworth, whose views match up a lot more closely with her supporters’ views, she would be seen as imitating McCain’s worst habits. She would be considered a worse sell-out than McCain. She would be doing exactly the opposite of what she did in NY-23. Her intervention may have failed to elect Hoffman, but rank-and-file conservatives generally loved her for it anyway. She would fritter all that away if she backed McCain.Is Kristol worrying that Steve Schmidt may be right about her?

• Email Of The Day

  Andrew Sullivan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:02 pm

  A reader writes: I just received my order of six Window View books (paid the initial price of $29.95) and then ordered 75 once I saw them (at the new price of $16.25). I’ve seen mixed results from self-publishing places in the past, so I wanted to see a real example before I ordered many as gifts. I would imagine that there may be others like me who will order one for themselves and then order more for friends/family and business clients at Christmas once they see how impressive it is in real life. Well: 75 is a lot. But I'm glad the reader sees just how beautiful the book turned out.

• Face Of The Day

  Andrew Sullivan

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:45 pm

  Haydar Khalil, a Praham market trader spits a cherry pip out of his mouth as he takes part in a cherry pip spitting competition at the launch of the 2009 Victorian Cherry Season at Prahran Market on November 20, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia. The competition was won by Khalil who spat his cherry pip 15.97 metres. By Scott Barbour/Getty.

• 
  mcclatchydc.com: Washington

• Will health care even get past Senate's starting gate?

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:35 pm

  WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to approve on Saturday the start of a historic debate over health care legislation aimed at making coverage easier, less expensive to obtain and harder to lose.

• Couple plead guilty to Cuba spying, will go to prison

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

  WASHINGTON — A retired State Department employee will spend life in prison without parole after he and his wife pleaded guilty Friday to serving as covert agents for Cuba for three decades.

• For central California lawmakers, fundraising never stops

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

  WASHINGTON — The dollar chase never stops for California incumbents and challengers alike, who keep busy raising campaign funds for themselves and for others.

• Cosmetic surgeons frown on Senate's 'botax' plan

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

  WASHINGTON — If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The "botax" may be on the way.

• Lawmaker asks people to stop complaining, and gets an earful

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

  WASHINGTON — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver wanted people to stop complaining for a day and count their blessings.

• 
  WSJ.COM

• Obama Seeks to Boost U.S. Exports

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

  U.S. President Barack Obama, fresh from his first presidential trip to Asia, called for the U.S. to increase exports to that region, saying even small gains would help put many unemployed Americans back on the job.

• U.S. Enlists Allies in New Surge

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

  The U.S. and NATO are in talks for a coordinated rollout of a new Afghan strategy that could include a European commitment to send thousands of additional troops.

• Army General to Run Fort Hood Probe

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:59 pm

  The Army tapped its top officer in Europe, Gen. Carter Ham, to lead an intensive 45-day probe into whether it could have done more to prevent the Fort Hood shootings.

• California's Newsom Faces Headwinds

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:59 pm

  Gavin Newsom, the telegenic San Francisco mayor, said he is planning to remain in public service for his career despite a string of recent political setbacks.

• Democrats Get Key Vote on Health Bill

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:51 pm

  Sen. Nelson said he will vote to advance the Senate health-care bill in a crucial procedural vote, the first of three Democratic holdouts to back the measure.

• 
  Lew Rockwell: The LRC Blog

• Greenspan-Volcker vs. Ron Paul

  Lew Rockwell

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am

  Good for Ron for stirring these two establishment mullahs to oppose him. But forget their official arguments, which are always a smokescreen in the state-bankster world. Remember that  Greenspan was a J.P. Morgan (i.e., Rockefeller) economist before he ascended to the Fed. Now he works for hedge funds and big banks in NYC. Volcker was vice chairman of Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank before his apotheosis. Now he runs the J. Rothschild  investment bank on Wall Street. Power-elite analysis is what we need. As Murray Rothbard always said, look to where high state officials come from,…

• Audit the Fed Vote Tally

  David Kramer

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:02 am

  Just for your record, here is the list of representatives who voted on the Paul-Grayson amendment and how they voted. If you are someone who votes, you might want to remember this if one of the “nays” is your representative. AL-06 Rep. Spencer Bachus – yay CA-12 Rep. Jackie Speier- yay CA-22 Rep. Kevin McCarthy – yay CA-27 Rep. Brad Sherman – yay CA-35 Rep. Maxine Waters – nay CA-40 Rep. Edward R. Royce – yay CA-42 Rep. Gary G. Miller – nay CA-43 Rep. Joe Baca – nay CA-48 Rep. John Campbell – yay CO-07 Rep. Ed Perlmutter – yay CT-04 Rep. Jim Himes – nay DE-01…

• New EU Head Blatantly Admits the Goal of One World Government

  David Kramer

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:48 am

  At 2:02 in this video, he declares: “The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step towards the global management of our planet.”

• The DC Establishment Suffers a Major Defeat

  Lew Rockwell

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:49 pm

  Writes Glenn Greenwald: Something quite amazing happened yesterday in Congress:  the House Finance Committee — in a truly bipartisan and even trans-ideological vote — defied the banking industry, the Federal Reserve, the Democratic leadership, and mainstream Beltway opinion in order to pass an amendment, sponsored by GOP Rep. Ron Paul and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, mandating a genuine and probing audit of the Fed. Read the rest.

• The Recession Creeps Across the Land

  Stephen Carson

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm

  Watch this animation of unemployment rates going up since January 2007. By the time you get to the end with all the black counties, counties with 10% or greater unemployment according to official (understated) figures, it is pretty hard to see those green shoots. [Thanks Daring Fireball]

• 
  ABC NEWS

• Sixty Senators? Key Senate Health Care Reform Vote Tonight

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am

  Democrats eye 60 Senate votes, but differences could threaten bill later. Healthcare reform - United States Senate - Senate - Health - United States

• Note: John McCain Targets Ben Nelson on Health Care Vote

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:47 pm

  Sen. McCain has takes unusual step of personally targeting a fellow senator in an attempted grassroots campaign against the Dem bill. John McCain - John McCain presidential campaign 2008 - United States - Ben Nelson - Presidential

• WATCH: Saturday Showdown in the Senate

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pm

  Sen. Sherrod Brown tells "Top Line" the health care bill needs more subsidies. Sherrod Brown - Harry Reid - Barack Obama - United States - Democratic

• The Note: Burris Cleared But Chastised by Senate Colleagues

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm

  No legal violations, but Ethcs Cmte condemns conduct United States - Senate - United States Senate - Government - Legislative Branch

• WATCH: Illinois' Busy Day in Politics

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:49 am

  Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times and Politics Daily talks to "Top Line." Chicago Sun-Times - United States - Lynn Sweet - Illinois - Politics

• 
  National Review: The Campaign Spot

• That Was Then, This Was Now -- By: Jim Geraghty

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:49 am

  Americans for Tax Reform has found 16 separate new taxes, tax increases, and eliminations of tax deductions in the Senate version of the health-care bill. As Keith Hennessey notes, this bill would violate, again, Barack Obama's promise that he would not raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. (He already broke that promise by raising tobacco taxes, but I guess that's the thing about breaking promises -- it gets easier with experience.)

• A Hilarious Anti-Harry-Reid Ad That Probably Won't Last Long -- By: Jim Geraghty

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am

  This ad from Danny Tarkanian, candidate for Senate in Nevada, is hilarious, depicting X-Files' agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigating Harry Reid's "missing congressional districts." Go watch it right now, as it will also probably be pulled very quickly, unless Tarkanian obtained the rights to use clips from "The X-Files." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't directly responsible for nonexistent congressional districts cropping up in Recovery.gov, but he certainly did pledge that the government would spend the money wisely and openly with great accountabilty. (HT: Watchdog.org.)

• Fox Finds No Significant Wrongdoing in Henhouse -- By: Jim Geraghty

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

  The Senate Ethics Committee has "found that [Illinois Sen. Roland] Burris's sworn affidavit and testimony before the Illinois House of Representatives as to how he was appointed were inconsistent, incomplete and misleading." Naturally, they have responded to this serious violation -- close to perjury, one would think -- with a letter of "Qualified Admonition." Apparently they thought a letter of reprimand would be too tough.

• There Is No Plan B. -- By: Jim Geraghty

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  We find ourselves dealing with the frightening realization that with the Obama administration, there is no Plan B. There are a lot of unemployed folks out there. A lot more are worried about their jobs, a lot more are wondering how they're going to pay their mortgages, their rent, their grocery bills. Last year, when people first started to really worry, they elected Barack Obama to the presidency. Not my choice, but I hope he can make the situation better instead of worse. Obama's first crack at improving the economy was the stimulus, and we’ve lost three million more jobs since it passed.

• Thrown Hats Are Landing in Rings in Iowa, Minnesota, and Connecticut -- By: Jim Geraghty

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:05 am

  A few more aspiring Republican congressmen have made their bids official. In Iowa, former Iowa State University wrestling coach Jim Gibbons will run against Democrat Leonard Boswell.In Minnesota, Allen Quist, a "retired college teacher and rural farm owner -- who also served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1982 to 1988 -- announced Thursday that he will challenge DFL Rep. Tim Walz for his First District congressional seat." In Connecticut, "former Bridgeport mayoral hopeful Rick Torres has joined the growing field of Republican contenders hoping to take on freshman Democratic…

• 
  The Atlantic: Marc Ambinder

• Question Of The Weekend: How Important Is The Vote?

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

  How important is Saturday's Senate vote on health care reform, given that a "yes" would simply mean that debate starts nine days later, and that "no" would mean health care fails its first test and Reid is probably forced to change parts of his bill?

• The Resetting of Afghan-U.S. Diplomacy

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:12 pm

  No one felt very good about Thursday's inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's second term. The White House, recognizing the necessity of a close ally in Kabul but the need for our complicated relationship with Karzai to change, is hitting reset. The Washington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran explains our "softer approach" to be led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: [T]op diplomats and generals are abandoning for now their get-tough tactics with Karzai and attempting to forge a far warmer relationship. They recognize that their initial strategy may have done more harm than good,…

• What Giuliani 2012 Would Look Like

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

  The New York Daily News suggested Thursday that, according to one source, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani might use a run for Senate--if he wins--as a launching pad for taking another stab at the White House in 2012.Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign went down in flames, more or less, but he remains a nationally recognized figure with a respectable support base. So, in light of this speculation, why not engage in some more, and ask what a Giuliani presidential campaign in 2012 would look like?If Giuliani entered a Republican primary field, it would, unavoidably, introduce a very…

• Cleaning the Inbox on Fridays

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am

  Pretty interesting polling numbers for Sen. Blanche Lincoln and John McCain. Throw in the trouble brewing in SC for Lindsay Graham, and that poll after poll, and Tim Geinther's pounding on The Hill, shows people think government is helping Wall Street and big corporations and not them, and you have wonder when the Democratic unity damn breaks wide open and everyone runs for cover.  The Four Holdouts -- Lieberman, Lincoln, Mary Landreiu and Ben Nelson. The most compelling Saturday night drama since ... the Golden Girls. Actually, Ben Nelson is out. He's actually in. He'll vote to allow…

• SarahPAC Sells "Going Rogue"

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:22 am

  In case your local Barnes & Noble is out of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue: An American Story"...or in case you don't want to wait in line for a signature, don't worry: there's another way. Palin's political group, SarahPAC, is selling signed copies for donations of $100 or more. It just sent out an email notifying supporters that the offer ends Wednesday, Nov. 25 at noon Eastern. This allows Palin to make extra money off the book for her political efforts, accruing some financial capital for SarahPAC along with any political capital she gets from her signing tour and media blitz.

• 
  Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

• Staying In Saturday Night?

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Political junkies will have a couple of good choices: You'll be able to follow the Senate health care debate on C-SPAN or you can watch the live stream of the Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner with Vice President Joe Biden as the keynote speaker.

• Reality Check on Presidential Approval Rates

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am

  Putting news of President Obama's approval rate dipping below 50% in perspective, USA Today runs an excellent interactive chart plotting presidential approval rates since 1945. When comparing various presidents to each other, as of right now, President Obama most closely tracks Ronald Reagan.

• Senators to Watch

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 am

  With Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) announcing today that he would vote on Saturday night to bring the health care reform bill up for debate, attention turns to four others whose votes may indicate the ultimate success or failure of the bill. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) -- According to Politico, she's already told Reid how she'll vote but she hasn't made her intentions public yet. A new poll shows her vote may be critical to her re-election prospects next year. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) -- She's voiced opposition to the public option, but Bloomberg notes there was a $100 million addition to the bill…

• Burris Admonished by Senate Ethics Panel

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:39 am

  The Senate Ethics Committee publicly admonished Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) for "discrediting himself and the Senate in the way he sought appointment to the seat of now-President Barack Obama," Roll Call reports. In a public letter of qualified admonition, the committee found that Burris "should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public, the Senate and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate."

• Inside Tim Russert's Office

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

  There's an online version of the Inside Tim Russert's Office exhibit that opens today at the Newseum.

• 
  BBC News: Politics UK Edition

• 'Failures' over £113m jet project

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am

  Ministers' '"failures and uncertainty" in an axed defence jobs project costing £113m are a concern, a report finds.

• DUP 'cannot guarantee assembly'

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:52 am

  Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson admits he cannot guarantee the future of the assembly.

• Fish talks result is 'appalling'

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:05 am

  Fisheries Secretary, Richard Lochhead attacks the European Commission after Scottish catch restrictions were extended.

• Tories ponder Army's German role

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm

  UK troop levels in Germany could be scaled back if the Tories win power, the shadow defence secretary has said.

• Police urged to visit all victims

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:32 pm

  Police should visit each victim of crime no matter how minor the offence, the home secretary says.

• 
  CBS News: Politics

• Senate Health Bill Faces Crucial Vote

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:05 am

  Democrats' Procedural Move Would Advance Bill Expanding Health Coverage for Americans; GOP Seeks to Kill Plan

• Video: Cuban Protester Incites Outrage

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:52 pm

  Pro-government demonstrators in Cuba interrupted a protest held by Reinaldo Escobar, who claims that his wife was harassed by State Security. CBS News' Portia Siegelbaum reports that Escobar was taken away, and his whereabouts are now unknown.

• Video: California Vs. Nevada

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:06 pm

  In this economy, states are trying to attract and retain businesses and the taxes they generate. An increasingly nasty border battle is raging between California and Nevada. Ben Tracy reports.

• Video: Reid Seeks Momentum in Health Debate

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm

  Bob Schieffer hears from Washington correspondent Nancy Cordes on the votes Democratic senators will need to start a formal debate on their healthcare bill. And, how did Ronald Reagan really get elected?

• Rules Differ for Palin at Military Bases

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  At Fort Hood, Few Limits on Access to Conservative Star Pushing Book; Fort Bragg Bars Interviews of Palin or her Supporters

• 
  TOWNHALL.COM

• Townhall.com Staff: Stupak-Pitts Amendment Speaks Truth to Power

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Guest post from Chris Gacek with the Family Research CouncilThere is much gnashing of teeth by abortion supporters over the inclusion of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment in the Speaker Nancy Pelosi health care bill - H.R....

• Meredith Jessup: Do Hacked Emails Show Global Warming Fraud?

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:47 pm

  The blogosphere is on fire today with reports that a UK climate change advocacy center had its email hacked and thousands of files have been re-posted online which suggest these activists have been playing fast and...

• Michael Medved: Less TV, Not More Money, Easiest Way to Improve School Outcomes

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm

  Teachers unions and other left wing pressure groups cite disappointing American educational statistics and call for sharp increases in school spending-ignoring the fact that we already count among world leaders in per...

• Greg Hengler: Vince Flynn's Alternative Idea To Eric Holder's NYC Terrorist Trial

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm

• Jonathan Garthwaite: The Townhall Sweatshop Never Closes

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pm

  As I mentioned yesterday, the Townhall interns get the pleasure of unpacking, stuffing, stamping and mailing the books. The books arrived and the interns have been trying to keep up with demand all week. Everybody wants...

• 
  the TOWN HALL weblog

• Winston Smith Call Your Doctor

  BurkeanMama

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:19 am

  Just last week the World Health Organization started recommending that swine flu patients be given anti-viral medicine at the first sign of flu.  Just last week, and this epidemic has been going on since April.  Fortunately our pediatrician practices medicine instead of politics and doesn’t take his marching orders from government or inter-government agencies.  BurkeanSon went on anti-viral medicine at the first sign of swine.   (I am not going to say our doctor’s name for fear WHO police will start banging down his door for unlawfully treating sick kids.) As I wrote at the…

• Forget Gold Buy Tinkerbell

  BurkeanMama

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:16 pm

  I’ve been selling off some totchkes on ebay.  I have discovered a great hedge against financial instability.  Pixie Power.  All the Tinkerbell memorabalia I have sold has gone for about 50% more than I paid.  So if you want a safe place to put your money think about Pixie Dust.

• Rats Flee Sinking Ship

  BurkeanMama

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am

  File this under “help my monster got loose and is killing the villagers.”  One of the oh so very brainy way smarter than Sarah Palin could ever be liberals who drafted the stimulus bill is outraged to discover it isn’t working.  http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/17/david-obey-slams-obama-administration-for-errors-in-reporting-st/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2009%2F11%2F17%2Fdavid-obey-slams-obama-administration-for-errors-in-reporting-st%2F   Obey was a major player in writing the stimulus bill, and said he was dismayed to…

• Obama wants Tom the Taxer as WI next Governor.

  DeanSMS

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  The 2010 election cycle has begun. Here in Wisconsin the Democrats have big plans to spend/tax forever and ever. Here is Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walkers e-mail today: Today, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, aka Tom the Taxer, entered the race for governor of Wisconsin.  Tom the Taxer has stood for big spending and big taxes at every step of his career - from his time in the State Senate where he voted for the largest tax increase in Wisconsin history, to Washington where he supported the biggest tax increase in American history, and as mayor of Milwaukee where he has increased city…

• Interesting Items 11/16 –

  DeanSMS

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:47 pm

  Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy – In this issue: 1. Cyber War 2. Show Trials 3. Kelo 4. Slush Fund 5. Purge6. USNA 1. Cyber War. Shane Harris writing in the National Journal Saturday described cyber war plans in a long article. The article went on to describe the overall threat to our financial system and the fact that we as Americans aren’t in the forefront of this way to wage war (we are thought or hoped to be as good as Russia and China). It also described cyber warfare, information operations conducted against the wireless / cell phone networks used by…

• 
  Jerusalem Post

• Iraq vote delay likely after veto on election law

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pm

  Veto slammed by Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister as threat to democracy; comes as top US commander says timetable for American troop drawdown on track.

• Lebanese diva accused of singing racist song

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pm

  Haifa Wehbe stirs controversy over lyric implying Nubian Egyptians are "monkeys."

• Algerians party in Gaza after World Cup qualification

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:28 pm

  National team earns its first World Cup berth since 1986 with 1-0 victory over bitter rival Egypt.

• Turkey: Assad won't accept French mediation

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:28 pm

  Erdogan says Netanyahu doesn't trust Turkey to mediate Syria talks, Damascus doesn't want Paris.

• Yemen-Saudi clashes push up qat prices

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am

  Clashes between the Saudi army and Al-Houthi rebels are damaging the lucrative qat drug trade, a major source of income for rebels.

• 
  Mother Jones

• Sarah Palin, Tito the Builder, and Me

  By David Corn

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:53 am

  Well, I guess I've made it. Sort of. In Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, I have a cameo appearance on page 305. I learned of this not by reading the book—just haven't gotten around to it yet—but because Slate produced a tongue-in-cheek (but real) index for the index-free book. I'm listed under "haters, unnamed"—along with Andrew Sullivan and Ashley Judd. ("Haters, named" includes two Alaska-based critics of Palin—blogger Andrew Halcro and self-styled reform watchdog Andree Mcleod—and the Huffington Post.) What drew me into Palin World was an…

• Stimulus Site Criticism: Legit?

  By Jennifer LaFleur and Michael Grabell

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am

  This story first appeared on the ProPublica website. Stimulus critics were abuzz this week flogging the federal Web site Recovery.gov for flaws in its first big data release. Problems ranged from confusing variation and gaps in job numbers to mistakes that put projects in nonexistent congressional districts to spending that never made it into the data. Even stimulus backers demanded fixes. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations and one of the chief architects of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package, demanded that the Obama administration “correct…

• The Afghan Speech Obama Should Give

  By Tom Engelhardt

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am

  This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website. Sure, the quote in the over-title is only my fantasy. No one in Washington—no less President Obama—ever said, "This administration ended, rather than extended, two wars," and right now, it looks as if no one in an official capacity is likely to do so any time soon. It's common knowledge that a president—but above all a Democratic president—who tried to de-escalate a war like the one now expanding in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, and withdraw American troops, would be so much domestic political dead…

• Brodner's Cartoon du Jour: At the Karzai Inauguration . . .

  By Steve Brodner

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am

  ...the oath was reportedly administered by good friend Rod Blagojevich. In a lighthearted moment the two exchanged the hair for the hat. Also in attendance (and up for high-level Cabinet posts): Alberto Fujimori, Robert Mugabe, and 17 Madoffs.

• Trying Terrorists

  By Mark Fiore

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

  This cartoon requires Macromedia's Flash Player. If you don't see the cartoon above, download the player here. Mark Fiore is an editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a web site featuring his work.

• 
  The McLaughlin Group

• Video Podcast for the week of : 11/13/09

  John McLaughlin

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Video Podcast for the week of : 11/13/09

• Audio Podcast for the week of : 11/13/09

  John McLaughlin

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Audio Podcast for the week of : 11/13/09

• Audio Podcast for the week of : 11/06/09

  John McLaughlin

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Audio Podcast for the week of : 11/06/09

• Video Podcast for the week of : 11/06/09

  John McLaughlin

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Video Podcast for the week of : 11/06/09

• Video Podcast for the week of : 10/30/09

  John McLaughlin

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Video Podcast for the week of : 10/30/09

• 
  Raw Story

• Skeptics claim stolen emails prove global warming a hoax

  Muriel Kane

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:56 pm

  Although arguments continue as to how much of recent climate change is natural and how much is man-made, only a few diehard skeptics doubt that the warming of the last few decades is real. Now, however, those skeptics can barely contain their glee at the release of a cache of stolen emails that they believe prove global warming is nothing but a colossal hoax. "If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW," one of these skeptics blogged on Friday. "The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW; aka ManBearPig) has been suddenly,…

• Senate puts off promised hearing on ‘don’t ask don’t tell’

  Agence France-Presse

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:52 pm

  WASHINGTON — A planned November hearing by the US Senate Armed Services Committee to consider ending a ban on gays serving openly in the US military will be postponed, a spokeswoman indicated Friday. "We do not have a date" for the hearing, said the aide, Tara Andringa. Committee staff have been working on Afghanistan issues ahead of President Barack Obama's decision on whether to send more troops, and more recently on the aftermath of the shock rampage at the sprawling Fort Hood military base. The panel's chairman, Democratic Senator Carl Levin, had said in late October that it would hold…

• Texas inmate executed as governor rejects mercy plea

  Agence France-Presse

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:44 pm

  WASHINGTON — An African American has been executed after Texas governor Rick Perry refused a last-minute recommendation to spare him because it was his accomplice who killed a store worker in an armed hold-up. Robert Thompson, 34, was pronounced dead late Thursday 15 minutes after he was given a lethal injection in the Texas jail, administered after Perry refused the last minute appeal to change the sentence to life imprisonment. In a rare move, the state's board of pardons and paroles had recommended to Perry that Thompson should not be put to death for his role in the 1996 burglary in…

• Students held in jail overnight without food in tuition hike protest

  Sahil Kapur

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pm

  Update: Police break in at UC Berkeley as talks break down. Saw off doors, prepare to make arrests. Police arrested 52 students protesting a tuition hike Thursday at the University of California-Davis and held them in jail overnight without food. One was reportedly beaten by police, a source close to the incident tells Raw Story. The incident took place in the midst of widespread protests at several University of California campuses, in response to the Board of Regents' decision this week to hike tuition fees by 32 percent starting next academic year. The protesters held a sit-in in Mrak…

• Maddow: Anti-Muslim ‘McCarthyism’ making us less safe

  David Edwards

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm

  A wave of anti-Muslim "McCarthyism" among Republican politicians in the wake of the Fort Hood shooting is not only not helping make America safer, it may actually be frustrating anti-terrorism efforts, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow says. In a segment on The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday night, Maddow aired numerous clips of Republican and conservative figures advocating for racial profiling, or even suggesting infiltration of the US government by "Al Qaeda sympathizers." Maddow equated the recent political trend to the McCarthyism of the 1950s, when Sen. Joe McCarthy used fear of communist infiltration…

• 
  TPM Election Central

• Tea Partiers Admit Defeat In Health Care Fight?

  Evan McMorris-Santoro

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:29 pm

  TPMDC just obtained an extraordinary email from inside the Tea Party Patriots movement. As the Senate prepares to open debate on a health care reform bill tomorrow, tea partiers appear to be admitting defeat in their push to stop reform and are promising a "change in tactics" movement leaders say will appease the "outrage and frustration" among tea partiers over the movement's failure to stop a Democratic health care bill from moving forward on a path to final passage.From tonight's email, sent to tea partiers across the country: We have heard a lot of outrage over the past several weeks from…

• Senate Switchboards On Fire As Health Care Calls Flood Zone

  Christina Bellantoni

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:48 pm

  We've heard all day about senate offices getting flooded with phone calls about the upcoming vote on the health care bill tomorrow. As we reported earlier, Organizing for America is doing a call blast urging supporters to ask their senators to back the first procedural vote to start debate. Republicans also have been working the phones to ask senators to block the bill. An aide to a Senate Democrat tells TPMDC their boss' phone rang so frequently today, the lines were busy for hours. The calls "continued to fill our voicemail box over and over again," the aide said. The overflow prompted…

• Obama Administration: We (Heart) Senate Health Care Bill

  Christina Bellantoni

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pm

  The White House has released a statement of administration policy about the Senate health care bill that will receive its first test vote tomorrow. If the headline above sounds familiar, so does the statement. They released a very similar one before the House health care vote earlier this month. "They have forged a strong consensus that represents an historic step forward," the administration said of both the House and Senate bills. Each statement talks about the bill being "the product of unprecedented cooperation and countless hours of hard work by Members of the Senate who share the…

• The Sunday Show Line-Ups

  Eric Kleefeld

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:51 pm

  Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend: ABC, This Week: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). CBS, Face The Nation: Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). CNN, State Of The Union: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Senate candidate Carly Fiorina (R-CA). Fox News Sunday: Guest list not yet announced. NBC, Meet The Press: Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Sen. Joe…

• Tomorrow's Health Care Vote: A Cheat Sheet

  Brian Beutler

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:40 pm

  With Ben Nelson now in the "yes" column, there are now two known Democratic hold outs on tomorrow's health care vote: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). Landrieu told reporters today that she'll likely make an announcement tomorrow morning. Lincoln, on the other hand, has been unreachable, and it's unclear if, or when, she'll announce her intent publicly before the vote, which will come at 8 p.m. tomorrow night. It's probably a safe guess that, if at the end of the day, there's something standing between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and 60 votes on the motion to…

• 
  Guardian: UK Politics

• Making allowances for childcare | Benjamin Dierks

  Benjamin Dierks

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Cash incentives alone won't solve childcare – perhaps Gordon Brown should look at Germany's response to a 'stove premium'While Gordon Brown has had to rethink his plan to abolish tax relief on childcare vouchers, family policy in Germany took a different turn right from the start. It's the better-off who benefit most from the childcare regulations introduced by Angela Merkel's new coalition government.This is no accident. For years, it's been those on higher incomes that the government in Berlin wants to persuade to have more babies. The average German woman gives birth to 1.38 children.

• Climate crunch

  John Harris

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:47 pm

  Unless they end in promises, and a treaty within months, Ed Miliband believes the Copenhagen talks will be a disaster. But can the British energy secretary, in Denmark for a frantic round of pre-summit diplomacy, win the argument?It's breakfast time in the biggest of Copenhagen's Scandic hotels. Over the obligatory croissants and coffee – and, for those who want it, an off-beam version of the English breakfast – 42 international delegations are preparing to go into a second day of talks. Phones tweet; hushed conversations within teams of negotiators form a low conversational hum.Look…

• In pictures: Behind the scenes in Copenhagen with Ed Miliband

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:31 pm

  Writer John Harris and Guardian photographer Martin Argles shadowed the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, for 40 hours during his trip to an intergovernmental meeting in Copenhagen ahead of the main conference there in December

• The EU's nice stich-up | Ilana Bet-El

  Ilana Bet-El

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:50 pm

  Lady Ashton is apparently a perfectly personable woman, but she was only chosen because she ticked the right boxesIf someone held the patent for the word "nice" they would make a fortune today: the only thing anyone can find to say about Lady Ashton is that she's nice. Sometimes she's just nice, other times she's nice in comparison to Lord Mandelson, her predecessor as EU trade commissioner. She also has nice people skills, and is nice to work with. Perhaps a fashion journalist will cast her eye over her soon and pronounce her dress sense nice; but maybe not. Or maybe one of those "EU…

• 'Gangbos' aimed at teenage crime

  Alan Travis

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:44 pm

  New injunctions against gangs and action on wheelclampers included in Alan Johnson's crime billNew antisocial behaviour injunctions – dubbed gangbos – aimed at tackling teenage gang members as young as 14 are to be introduced as part of the new crime and security bill, the home secretary disclosed yesterday.The civil injunctions will include bans on meeting other gang members, wearing gang colours, going to certain locations or having a violent dog in a public place.Breaching a gangbo could require the offender to report to the police regularly, obey a curfew enforced by an electronic tag…

• 
  ThinkProgress: Matthew Yglesias

• The Real Banker Backlash

  myglesias

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

  An interesting point from Gillian Tett who observes that the real populist backlash against the financial industry is likely to come when the bill genuinely comes due in the form of the need to massively reduce deficits in the 2011-13 period: Perhaps that will occur when income taxes are hiked above 50 per cent. Or maybe when hospital budgets are cut, or military spending slashed. Either way, the potential list is long. While that might cause political instability (which, of course, would be bad for bond markets) it might trigger a renewed, vitriolic round of bank-bashing – particularly if…

• Endgame

  myglesias

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:14 pm

  Decide what you came here for: — Feminists should defend Twilight fans . . . or maybe not. — Even the woeful Knicks won’t touch Allen Iverson but we’re still all assured he’s a great player. — Senate bill’s employer responsibility provisions are an improvement over Finance Committee draft. — Higher gas prices alone won’t make cars substantially cleaner. — Performance parking can fund appealing local amenities as well as improving the availability of parking spots. — Coal kills. LoveLikeFire’s refusal to rename themselves “Love Like…

• If You Build It, Will They Maintain It?

  myglesias

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges. But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people. Oooops! Spencer Ackerman did an…

• Michael Jordan Displays Uncharacteristic Classiness, Humility

  myglesias

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  Michael Jordan seems to have been stung by the negative reaction to his horrifying Hall of Fame speech and decided to start showing some class and humility: If the NBA were to retire Michael Jordan’s No. 23 leaguewide, the newly inducted Hall of Famer says there are several more players just as worthy of the distinction. LeBron James, who wears No. 23 for the Cleveland Cavaliers, said last week he would change jersey numbers next season in honor of Jordan, and said no other players should wear it, either. [...] “Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Bill Russell all those guys should have…

• The Three Percent Solution

  myglesias

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

  Building on yesterday’s idea, borrowed from Brad DeLong, that the Fed could stimulate the economy by raising its long-term inflation target from two percent to three percent it’s worth noting that there are other arguments for thinking that this would be a good idea. First off, it’s worth noting that three percent inflation is still pretty low. There’s nothing magical about the two percent number, and a somewhat higher figure is still very much consistent with the basic idea that low inflation is good. Second, a higher inflation rate would speed the process by which…

• 
  The Plum Line

• Happy Hour Roundup

  Greg Sargent

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  Gallup adds more context to Obama’s drop below 50%, noting that while only Ford, Reagan and Clinton have hit this point faster than Obama did, all presidents who’ve crossed that threshold rebounded. GOP leaders keep laying the groundwork to portray any Afghanistan escalation short of 40,000 new troops as a betrayal of the commanders. Oh, man. GOP Rep Steve King is really, really, really frightened of what could happen as a result of Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s trial. No word on what he thought of Bush’s claim that terrorists should be tried in U.S. courts. Chris Matthews…

• Small Town To Liz Cheney: We Want Gitmo Detainees, Not Your Fearmongering

  Greg Sargent

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  Officials in a small Michigan town featured in a new video about Guantanamo by Liz Cheney’s national security group want her to know that they’re not falling for her “fearmongering” — and tell us they want Gitmo detainees in their town. Cheney’s group, Keep America Safe, has released a short documentary starring several residents of little Standish, Michigan, slamming the Obama administration over a proposal to transfer some Guantanamo detainees to the town’s maximum security facility, one of several facilities being discussed. The vid, which is…

• OFA To Air Grassroots Ad Contest Winner Starting Monday

  Greg Sargent

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am

  The compelling and emotional ad featuring children worried about getting sick and dying — the spot that won the ad contest created by Obama’s political operation — will begin airing nationally next week, I’m told. Organizing for America will air the ad on national cable and in D.C. beginning Monday, in an effort to up the moral and emotional urgency of the health care debate with the message that the lives of an untold number of individual children hang in the balance: The ad contest, and the decision to air the winner with donations to OFA, are meant to contrast the…

• Obama To Drop Below 50% In Gallup Tracking Today, Official Confirms

  Greg Sargent

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am

  For the first time, President Obama will drop below 50% in today’s Gallup tracking poll, a Gallup official confirms. “He will be just below 50% when we update today,” Gallup spokesman Eric Nielsen says. Gallup updates at 1 PM daily. Obama had repeatedly skirted 50%, only to bounce back up again. When Gallup updates today, it will mark at least the third poll finding Obama dropping below 50% — Quinnipiac and Fox both had similar findings this week. But the Gallup tracking poll’s finding is likely to generate considerably more discussion, because of Gallup’s…

• Will McCain’s Savior In GOP Primary Prove to Be … Sarah Palin?

  Greg Sargent

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

  You may have seen the new Rasmussen poll finding that John McCain is locked in an uncomfortably close GOP primary with conservative challenger J. D. Hayworth. So who will save McCain’s hide and career? Bill Kristol has a suggestion: Still, who could help McCain beat back a populist conservative challenger? Sarah Palin. I predict that Palin will come to Arizona next summer to campaign for McCain, will make an impassioned case for him, and will help him win. She will thereby repay McCain for his confidence in picking her last year, help keep McCain as a crucial voice in the Senate for a…

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  Watchblog: Democrats

• A Response to "Armed and Dangerous"

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pm

  I made three comments on the issue that Rhinehold raised in the Green Column (one, two, and three), before I decided that I thought that the issue he brought up should have a deeper examination. I will save most of my explanation of what I said for after the jump, but to put my point plainly, I believe that it shows that both government and citizens must show restraint if we are to have a society at peace with itself. Our rights are meant to create a balance, not to encourage wanton disregard of the safety and property of others.More or less, my point was that this man, without actually being…

• Get The Rope, It's Lynchin' Time

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  “If we are stuck with this terrible Obama Administration decision, I, like most Americans, hope that Mohammed and his co-conspirators are convicted. Hang ‘em high.” These aren’t the ignorant ramblings of some trailer-trash Evangelical, they are the ramblings of the once vice-presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska, Sara Palin. According to her we should abandon our American principles, deny someone a trial, and march strait to the lynching tree with our torches held high. It is sad and frightening that someone who came so close to being one step away from president, and…

• Affirming American Justice

  14 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

  Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other top terrorism suspects will be prosecuted in federal court on Friday. And the Far-Right erupted with ..... fear! Those who have been incapacitated from excessive trembling for the last 8 years, screamed with anguish. Evidently they do not think much of the American system of justice. But Eric Holder is a true believer and a true patriot: he has affirmed to the world that democratic America can be counted on to deliver justice to even the scum of the earth. I was watching The News Hour with Jim Lehrer when David…

• Will we abandon our principles over the Fort Hood massacre?

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

  If a white man had perpetrated the horrible crime at Fort Hood the media and many Americans would readily blame video games or bullying, but since the man was Muslim now we have to start worrying about American Muslims? This man may in fact be a terrorist, even aligned to a terrorist organization or not, but we cannot link his actions with all Muslim Americans. I’m the last person on the planet to defend religion but this is just another example of Americans immediately blaming the broad institution of Islam for the actions of one individual or a segment of the whole. Why is it that we…

• My Glenn-Beckian Rant

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

  Sadly, one of our most highly regarded Comedians has fallen ill, and Jon Stewart offers his tribute. Oh, you mean he's actually serious about that stuff? Well, I shall offer tribute by going unhinged myself, because I... I... [puts hand to mouth] I... [wait for it] just love this country! And I don't want THEM to destroy it! But seriously, fellows. I am mad as hell nowadays. And I am not so mad at the Democrats as some Republicans might hope that I am. Why? Because I got used to compromise and disappointment long ago. And you know something? If the Republican blockade of the Senate weren't…

• 
  Watchblog: Third Party & Independents

• From Subversive Talk to Revolutionary Results

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  Normally, when I read a new book I like to get the essential message or theme of it quickly, so I can decide whether I will continue reading it very carefully or just make it a quick read. For Mickey Z.’s new book SELF DEFENSE FOR RADICALS: A to Z Guide for Subversive Struggle, I had to wait for page 7.That's when I hit this statement: “The current patterns of dissent in America are long overdue for re-evaluation and overhaul. The powers-that-be have long ago figured out how to either marginalize or co-opt dissent. Until our tactics evolve, we remain accomplices to the perpetual global…

• Investing and Politics

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:01 am

  If folks stowed their money away in fixed rate investments during the latter part of the Bush economy, and then reallocated that money into stock investments for the Obama economy, those folks have to be pleased at having saved as much as a 50% loss at the end of the Bush economy, and approaching as much as a 50% gain during this Obama economy, starting in March of this year. Of course, President's don't control the stock markets. Myriad factors, most knowable, some not, play roles in the direction of market investments. The trick is to acknowledge and accept the trends without prejudice,…

• Armed and Dangerous

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:13 am

  A man in New Hampshire has just been convicted of criminal threatening.  It’s a win for the police who have gotten this criminal off of the street and behind bars where he belongs.  I’m not sure what kind of country we would be if we didn’t have our police departments on the lookout for these types of criminals and protecting us from them.  This man’s crime?  He had a pocket knife open in his hand, ready to defend himself against two darkly clothed men who were following him down a dark city street late at night.  The thug!  He obviously didn’t know the…

• Why Obama Buried the Goldstone Report

  14 Nov 2009 | 5:09 am

  For some reason the United States and the rest of the western world is doing their best to bury the Goldstone report on the war crimes of Israel and Hamas last year. The main argument I hear against the report is that Hamas’ launching of missiles at Israel from civilian areas made it necessary for Israel to kill civilians in self-defense. Let’s take a hard look at why the current US administration as well as a large portion of the “civilized” world is in search of reasons to justify the killing of civilians in self-defense. Last month the Obama administration pressured Mohammed Abbas…

• Term Limits: The GOP's Fake Gesture is Resurrected

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am

  Some Republicans are calling for Term Limits of those in Congress. When you are done laughing your arse off, please continue reading. Term Limits were in the Contract With America, offered by Republicans in 1994. As soon as Republicans acquired the majority in government to enact term limits, the entire issue was never spoken of by the GOP again. Until now, that is. Now, that they are the diminished minority, again. Despite the Supreme Court's two rulings striking down term limits questions as unconstitutional (arbitrarily restricts voter choice on election day), and despite Republicans…

• 
  Thomas P. M. Barnett

• Al Qaeda tries another door on Saudi Arabia

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:59 am

  MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA: "Saudis and Yemenis versus jihadists: A bloody border; Trouble on the frontier between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is getting out of hand," The Economist, 7 November 2009. Saudi Arabia's AQ branch announced earlier this year that it was moving across the border into Yemen to take advantage of the growing instability there, thus birthing the new Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). So the House of Saud faces the usual problem: spray in one apartment and find they move over nearby into the dirtiest one. Per capita income in Yemen is one-tenth that of Saudi Arabia.

• GPS's impact on farming

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: "Agriculture and satellites: Harvest moon; Artificial satellites are helping farmers boost crop yields," The Economist, 7 November 2009. Fascinating description of how GPS allows farmers--even in less developed economies--to start managing their fields in a much more discrete manner. Good example: customized seed packets and fertilizer premixed by providers according to exact needs presented by predetermined zones--measured hectare by hectare via satellites. France is considered the leader in applying this technology (precision farming).

• Seven Reasons to Give Thanks That the World Didn't End This Year

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

  David Hughes Economic meltdown? Social anarchy? World War III? Go humbug yourself. Our foreign-policy analyst looks back on the 2009 fears that weren't, so we can all count our global blessings this holiday season. Continue reading this week's World War Room column at Esquire.com.

• When economics gets ahead of politics: beats the hell out of the alternative

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:46 am

  LEADERS: "So much gained, so much to lose: Over the past 20 years economic freedom has outpaced political liberty. Neither should be taken for granted," The Economist, 7 November 2009. Logic very much in my vein: economics has raced ahead of politics since the Wall fell, disappointing the democracy-now! types. Does the slo-mo movement toward political pluralism negate the link between economic liberty and political liberty? No. Economics has made globalization nearly global, but politics remains stubbornly local. That gap defines danger as globalization moves forward, but this isn't 1914 by…

• When the Iranian clergy switch sides

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:39 am

  ARTICLE: Future Perfect, By Geneive Abdo, Newsweek , Nov 18, 2009 This fits nicely with the mullahs-have-lost-power scenario unfolding. Khamenei has so sold his soul to the Revolutionary Guard that the clergy are slowly coming to the conclusion that the faith would be better served detached from the government. When this happens, a major portion of the clergy then switch over to the green movement and we get a Poland/Solidarnosc scenario that moves with great power. (Thanks: jjennings)

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  Pajamas Media

• An Autumn Cornucopia

  Michael S. Malone

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  What do World War II, Apple vs. Microsoft, and the Republic of Armenia have in common?

• The Return of Abortion as a National Issue

  La Shawn Barber

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  I can't recall a time when abortion was as high-profile as it's been in 2009.

• The Reality of the Stasi State in East Germany

  Ron Radosh

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  A nondescript, hard to find museum that used to be the headquarters of the secret police is a house of horrors.

• The Unrequited Dream of Smart Guns

  Bob Owens

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  They look wonderful in theory but fail miserably in practice.

• Putin Murders Another Lawyer

  Kim Zigfeld

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Sergei Magnitsky, lawyer for a former Putin ally who challenged the regime's corruption, dies in prison after being tortured.

• 
  TIME: The Page

• There's (Still) Something About Mary

  adamsorensen

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm

  Senator Landrieu to announce decision on motion to proceed Saturday morning. Developing...

• Still Assessing Afghanistan

  christinacrapanzano1

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:33 pm

  Gibbs: Obama won't announce new Afghan strategy before Thanksgiving. Plus: House Republicans urge quick decision in letter to the president Thursday.

• Nelson on Board for Debate

  adamsorensen

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am

  Senator confirms Friday he'll support motion to proceed on health care. And/But: Threatens "no" on second cloture if bill remains unchanged. STATEMENT: Read it here.

• Pelosi: Karzai an "Unworthy Partner"

  adamsorensen

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Speaker has tough words on Afghanistan Friday.

• ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS

  Katie Rooney

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:45 am

  Meet the Press: Sens. Lieberman, Hutchison, Durbin, Feinstein This Week: Sens. Coburn, Nelson, Reps. Blackburn, Schultz; roundtable with George Will, Liz Cheney, Walter Isaacson, Robert Reich Face the Nation: Sens. Kyl, Schumer State of the Union: Sen. McConnell

• 
  Foreign Policy: Passport

• These are the world's 500 most influential Muslims?

  David Kenner

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:06 pm

  Georgetown University's Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, like any good institution, knows that the way to steer publicity toward their work is to make a list. This is the only possible explanation I can conjure up for their report on the world's top 500 most influential Muslims. Somewhere, Prince Al-Waleed must be pleased that he's getting his money's worth from the $20 million donation he made to establish the Center. Headlining the list is his uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. One can, of course, legitimately argue that Abdullah is the world's most…

• You down with KGB? Putin on hip-hop culture

  Joshua Keating

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:18 pm

  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently attended a rap battle sponsored by the Russian government to combat drug use. Vladimir Vladimirovich shared his thoughts on hip-hop culture and clapped awkwardly, but unfortunately chose not to drop a verse.

• SPLM on Scott Gration

  Elizabeth Dickinson

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am

  Via Mideast Wire, here's a translation of what the Sudan People's Liberation Movement ambassador to Washington, Akec Khoc, told the Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat about Gration: Q: “How do you see the current American-Sudanese relations? A: “For more than ten years, i.e. during the term of the administration of President Clinton then the administration of George Bush, the relationship has been very tense. And there have been many differences and clashes. But of course and thanks to the efforts of General Gration and after president Barack Obama has declared his new Sudan policy, it has…

• Asking the wrong questions on Cuba

  Jordana Timerman

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am

  The brunt of yesterday's hearing in the House committee about lifting the U.S. travel ban on Cuba came down the following: will allowing American visitors spread word of democracy, or will tourist dollars will just prop up the Castro regime? That is the wrong question according to a a Human Rights Watch report out this week, which documents how the Cuban government uses Orwellian laws to silence dissent and has become more abusive in recent years.Other governments must also revise their stance towards Cuba with the aim of fomenting human rights, said the report. Not only have all of these…

• North Africa's escalating soccer war

  Joshua Keating

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

  The France-Ireland dispute over Thierry Henry's handball is getting all the international press, but the three-way diplomatic dispute between Egypt, Algeria, and Sudan over violence at a recent World Cup qualifying match looks more serious: Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Algeria after World Cup qualifying football matches between the two countries resulted in a number of outbreaks of violence.. Egypt says a number of its fans who travelled to Sudan for a match on Wednesday to decide which of the sides would go to next year's World Cup finals in South Africa were assaulted by…

• 
  Salon: How the World Works

• Climate-gate!

  Andrew Leonard

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  The climate-change obsessed blogosphere -- including both those who accept the science behind anthropogenic climate change and those who deny it -- is in an absolute uproar today after the revelation that an unknown party hacked into the computer system of an important climate research center and posted hundreds of private e-mails to a Russian FTP server. To climate skeptics, the e-mails prove that global warming is a conspiracy theory. At Wonk Room, Brad Johnson rounded up the politicized reaction: If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW," says…

• A Goldman Sachs shareholder revolt?

  Andrew Leonard

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:18 am

  All morning long, the lead story on the Wall Street Journal's home page has been "Goldman Holders Miffed at Bonuses." According to reporter Susanne Craig, some of Goldman's largest shareholders have been privately expressing to Goldman management that a record-large bonus pool might not be in the best interest of the real owners of the investment bank, i.e., the institutions and investors who own Goldman's stock. In an opinion piece, also in the Journal, Michael Corkery approves of the basic principle: This is how it is supposed to work. Rather than the federal government dictating what a…

• More fun with corn cobs and ethanol

  Andrew Leonard

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am

  POET, the ethanol producer referenced in yesterday's post, "Who Cares About Peak Oil When You Have Corn Cobs?", has a public relations department that is on the ball. Nathan Schock, POET's public relations director, posted (and e-mailed to me) the following response, this morning: Andrew, I work for POET and your post was a nice surprise when I discovered it this morning. There are a few items that I'd like to respond to. First, on the willingness of farmers to collect cobs. We are getting a good response from the farmers we've dealt with around our first plant in Emmetsburg. They are the…

• Oliver North's climate change English lesson

  Andrew Leonard

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:21 am

  From a fundraising letter from Oliver North: Again, ever wonder why the liberals now always try to use the new term "catastrophic climate change" rather than "global warming." It's because it allows them to blame EVERY weather event (heat waves, blizzards, floods, droughts, hurricanes, etc.) on you, me, and our current use of fossil fuels. The goal? To destroy our way of life and con us into giving away billions of dollars to solve a non-crisis we have no power to prevent, even if it were real! I think Ollie's got his history a little mixed up. If I recall, Republicans, following the advice…

• Who cares about peak oil when you have corn cobs?

  Andrew Leonard

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:56 pm

  The old joke about cellulosic ethanol -- biofuel made from lignocellulose, the tough, woody, hard-to-break-down structural elements of plants -- is that it is always five years away from commercial deployment, and has been for the last 20 years, at least. The problem is not inherently technological: We know how to do it; the difficulty has always been in making the process cost-competitive with other fuels. So the news that POET, the largest ethanol producer in the U.S., has managed to cut production costs for cellulosic ethanol from $4.13 a gallon to $2.35 a gallon in the past year at its…

• 
  Culture Kitchen

• Retired Military Brass to Republicans: Stop Yer Bellyaching!

  mole333

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:43 am

  Seems dozens of top retired military brass are fed up with Republican lies and fear-mongering and are supporting Obama's decision to close Guantanamo Bay's detention center. Get a load of the list of signatories: GENERAL JOSEPH HOAR, USMC (RET.) GENERAL CHARLES KRULAK, USMC (RET.) GENERAL DAVID M. MADDOX, USA (RET.) GENERAL MERRILL A. MCPEAK, USAF (RET.) LIEUTENANT GENERAL RONALD E. ADAMS, USA (RET.) LIEUTENANT GENERAL ROBERT G. GARD JR., USA (RET.) VICE ADMIRAL LEE F. GUNN, USN (RET.) LIEUTENANT GENERAL CLAUDIA J. KENNEDY, USA (RET.) VICE ADMIRAL ALBERT H. KONETZNI JR., USN (RET.) LIEUTENANT…

• How to Save Health Care Reform: Teabagger-friendly Re-Branding

  Khalper

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am

  The Health Care vote in the house was close. And it still needs to pass the Senate. Poor branding, such as the term Public Option, didn't help the cause. But it's not too late to win the support of Republican enemies and the Teabaggers who control them. I submit a list of re-branding alternatives that will have Obamacare foes supporting health care reform faster than you can say Death Panels! Vote on which one will have the Teabaggers Teabagging for reform.  more this way» The Private Option The Keep the Government out of my Medicare/ Medicaid Option The Eternal Life…

• It Takes Balls to Try the 9/11 Terrorists in Manhattan

  mole333

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am

  The decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the other 9/11 conspirators in a public, civilian court within sight of Ground Zero is one of the strongest expressions of America's strength that I have heard in many years. There is no honor, no pride, no confidence in trying your enemies in secret. There is honor, pride and chutzpah for America to hold fast to our ideals, trust our democracy, and try our enemies in full public view. The republicans are expressing an amazing amount of hysterical fear at the prospect of giving the terrorists a fair, public trial. I am proud as all hell that we…

• Is Janet Napolitano showing early how bad for immigrants and #CIR she'll turn out to be?

  liza

  13 Nov 2009 | 2:17 pm

  Earlier today I had a knee-jerk reaction to this tweet from America's Voice: americasvoice: Napolitano doesn't answer directly question about Sheriff Joe Arpaio, says "secure communities" programs should be available nationwide (about 2 hours ago from web) Name: americasvoice Location: DC Description: Real immigration reform, now! URL: www.americasvoiceonl… Followers: 1496 Napolitano was speaking at a Center For American Progress conference on Immigration and was answering a question by the audience. I couldn't believe what I was reading and so twittered back:…

• Unintentionally racist moment brought to you by CHOIRE SICHA

  liza

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pm

  Whether he likes it or not, Choire has become enough of a fixture of the post-Gawker online publishing world to be considered part of the New York City media elite. And he's white. So it's no surprise I hurt my eyes rolling them after reading what is obviously intended to be a clever little throw-away post for him in What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night? | The Awl:  more this way»

• 
  TechRepublican.com

• The Second Cup: Foursquare is the New Twitter?

  Meghann Olshefski

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  100 Ways to Measure Social Media If there's anyone out there left who says you can't measure social media, here are a hundred answers. At most of the events I've been to lately, measurement continues to be a hot topic. The first question that comes up is, "What can I measure?" That's where this cheat sheet can come in handy: a list of 100 thought-starters. Next Year's Twitter? It's Foursquare Among the Web's early adopter set, the answer is nearly unanimous: Foursquare. While the technology landscape is ever-changing, I'd argue that Foursquare already has aligned itself to become…

• Sarah Palin's Twitter Fail

  Jeff Vreeland

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  Today former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin launched her new Twitter account (which currently has an interesting background promoting her new book). Surprisingly this was not a switch of her handle from her previous one (@AKGovSarahPalin), but a brand new Twitter Account. This is quite puzzling to me as to why she decided to not just switch the handle/username to a new one OR do as @DavidAll suggested and start using the handle @SarahPalin that a supporter has so graciously stated they would give to her. Even a quick search reveals 'Sarah Palin' with her old Twitter handle as…

• The Second Cup: Digital Flashback

  Meghann Olshefski

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  David Plouffe: Negative Viral Emails as Bad as Negative TV Ads Just off a conference call to promote Obama campaign manager David Plouffe’s new (and so-far excellent) book about the 2008 race, which I’m currently about 3/4 of the way through — more about that soon. On the call, though, I got to ask a question about the behind-the-scenes smear emails that circulated regularly throughout the campaign — what did the campaign do to respond that was most effective, and how should future political operations reply to similar tactics? Young Political Candidates Confronted by Digital Past on…

• 84,448 Fans and Counting

  Meghann Olshefski

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pm

  The Heritage Foundation, with the support of the David All Group, is ramping up its efforts to connect with conservatives through social networking sites and encouraging its members to share needed information with their peers online. Last week, the Heritage Foundation launched NoEnergyTax.com - a fully integrated and interactive site powered by Act.iv.ist to "shed light on energy taxes." Robert Bluey, Heritage's Director of Online Strategy, had this to say about the initiative - The real and ugly truths about cap-and-trade are not being exposed by the media. Therefore, we've…

• The Second Cup: You(r)Tube

  Meghann Olshefski

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:12 am

  YouTube Unveils Tool to Connect News Organizations with Citizen Journalists MediaPost reports: Google is unveiling a tool Tuesday that enables traditional television and online news agencies to create a platform to manage a bureau of citizen journalists. These mavericks capture life-changing events on camera and upload them to YouTube. It allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast these clips directly from YouTube-member pages. Connecting Citizens and Journalists with YouTube Direct Every day, people with video cameras are changing the ways we get our news. We see it during…

• 
  millennial makeover

• Who Needs Critical Thinking when I have Facebook?

  10 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pm

  One of the most often expressed criticisms of the Millennial Generation (born 1982 –2003), is that it seems to have lost all ability to analyze data, examine the logic and wisdom of a proposition, or read a blog and sort out the good and the bad in the argument being advanced.Usually described as “critical thinking,” this type of skill seems to be absent from a generation focused on sharing, communicating and finding group consensus.Often, the lack of critical thinking skills is attributed to the generation’s constant use of social media. Indeed, one of the traits older generations…

• Four Ms of Millennial Politics

  9 Nov 2009 | 7:23 pm

  Pundits were quick to point out that the percentage of Millennial voters (those 29 and younger ) in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections last week were roughly half of what they were in 2008. This led the voice of what passes for wisdom inside the Beltway, Charlie Cook, to proclaim, “we knew that young and minority voters who had never cast a ballot before they did for Barack Obama last year were very unlikely to show up at the polls this year or next.”His extrapolation of two state’s unique odd year election results into a guaranteed outcome in the 2010 general election…

• Deeds Done

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:28 pm

  The likely defeat today of Democrat Creigh Deeds by Republican Bob McDonnell in Virginia's gubernatorial election sends an important message to both political parties, but it's not clear either one will listen to it. McDonnell's win will give Republicans something to crow about after three straight losing elections in the formerly dark red state, but his path to victory didn't follow the route currently being touted by conservatives in his party. Democrats are inclined to dismiss Deeds likely defeat as an isolated incident that reflects more of Virginia's tradition to vote for the out party…

• Engergizing Millennials: Key to Dem Victory in 2010

  11 Oct 2009 | 4:17 pm

  The latest unemployment numbers and poll results have led most observers to predict a major setback for Democrats in the 2010 Congressional elections. But a year is a lifetime in politics and much can change between now and then to influence next year’s vote. As Ron Brownstein recently pointed out, the demographic makeup of the electorate is likely to be a key factor in whether or not the Democrats can maintain their current majority margins in 2010. While traditionally Democrats have focused on turning out African-American and Hispanic voters to offset Republican strength among white male…

• The Civility Crisis and How to Cure It

  1 Oct 2009 | 5:57 pm

  While the nation has been right to focus on the most recent outbreak of incivility, if not downright hostility, directed toward President Obama generally and his health care proposal specifically, the diagnosis of what ails the country and what must be done to end this type of behavior has been way off target. Republicans, who were quick to compare the actions of their party’s fringe elements to harsh, sometimes over the top Democratic criticism of former President George W. Bush missed the qualitative difference between expressing strong policy disagreement with the opposition, which is…

• 
  Patrick Ruffini

• GOP Revival: There's An App for That

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  What Ramesh Ponnuru has written about Tuesday's wins is right in so many ways: More important, a few Republican candidates have demonstrated that it is possible to transcend the party's conservative-moderate divide. In Virginia, Robert McDonnell won a landslide — the first Republican win in a governor's race there in 12 years — by running as a problem solver. Social conservatives know he is one of them. But independent voters strongly backed him too. Voters as a whole trusted him more than his Democratic opponent on everything from fixing the roads to strengthening the economy.

• NY-23 Across America

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:53 am

  What follows may be akin to one of those crazy ideas Dick Morris used to come up with in the Clinton White House, only one in ten of which turned out to be workable -- but when they worked, oh man, did they work. The key fact that sticks out in my mind about Doug Hoffman's incredible momentum in NY-23 is that his election would not have been possible had he been the Republican nominee. The fact that we may be about to elect a non-squish from New York has everything to do with the fact that he is running as a third-party independent, and not a Republican (even if the Conservative Party is an…

• The Left's Tenacious Advocacy for a Public Option

  21 Oct 2009 | 7:42 am

  If the public option passes in some form, thank the liberal blogosphere who put pressure on Democratic members of Congress to publicly threaten to derail health care reform if it wasn't included in the final bill. The specter of Democrats reverse-filibustering their own President's plan is what has kept the public option alive, even if one could argue that "alive" is akin to a persistent vegetative state. Contrast this to yes-man approach of the Congressional GOP in the early Bush years, and I personally find a lot to like about the Democratic model of the Congressional party serving as a…

• NY-23: Doug Hoffman for Congress

  17 Oct 2009 | 8:40 pm

  The Sienna poll of New York's 23rd Congressional district released Friday found Democrat Bill Owens pulling into the lead with 33 percent, followed by liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava at 29 and Conservative Party hopeful Doug Hoffman at 23.  Combined, the Republican and Conservative lines lead the Democrat 52 to 33 percent. And in a normal election, that would be that -- maybe 95% of the time the Conservatives cross-endorse the Republican.  Scozzafava's particularly egregious liberal record -- pro-card check and pro-stimulus -- rendered that impossible. And so we are faced with a…

• Rising Rightroots and Declining Netroots Now at Parity (or Better)

  26 Sep 2009 | 10:42 pm

  Flickr photo by Mike Bryant Lost in the hubbub about the tea parties, the health care town hall protests, Joe Wilson, and the ACORN sting is the outcome of a long-simmering meta debate about the vibrancy of the grassroots right and its capacity to organize online. Along with a slew of other bad political indicators, the perception that the GOP might be stuck in a permanent Luddite rut reached its peak with the election of Obama and the role the Internet played in his victory. Nearly a year later, not only have things turned around, but they've done so faster than anyone could have dreamed or…

• 
  National Journal Blogometer

• 11/20: 'Cause Everyone Loves Some Senate Speculation...

  Ian Faerstein

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:14 am

  Two pieces of news concerning the 2010 Senate races are currently making the rounds in the blogosphere. First, bloggers are discussing the New York Daily News report alleging that ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) "has decided against running for governor,...

• 11/19: Score One For Harry

  Ian Faerstein

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:32 am

  Political bloggers are discussing the health care reform bill that Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid presented yesterday. Although some liberal bloggers are annoyed by how much emphasis Dems have placed on cost, they're nevertheless pleased about the CBO's prediction that...

• 11/18: Is Bart Full Of Bluster?

  Ian Faerstein

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  Bloggers on both the left and right are discussing Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-MI) appearance on Fox and Friends, in which he warned that "healthcare will not move forward" if his abortion amendment is removed from the bill. Several liberal bloggers...

• 11/17: Castles Made Of Sand

  Ian Faerstein

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

  Last week we noted that liberal bloggers were buzzing about a PPP survey that signaled potential re-election difficulties for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Now a new poll has grabbed the attention of lefty bloggers: a Susquehanna survey showing AG Beau...

• 11/13: A Question Of Justice

  Ian Faerstein

  13 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

  NOTE: Blogometer will not publish on Monday, Nov. 16th. It will return on Tuesday, Nov. 17th. We apologize for the inconvenience! The big news in the blogosphere is AG Eric Holder's announcement that "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of...

• 
  Roll Call: Politics

• Hoffman to Decide About N.Y. Challenge This Weekend

  Doug Hoffman will likely make a decision "over the weekend" about whether he will challenge the results of the special election in New York's 23rd district, the Conservative Party candidate's spokesman said.

• DCCC Outraises NRCC in October, Has $10 Million More in Cash

  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised the National Republican Congressional Committee in the month of October, according to disclosures from both parties.

• Harris Poll Shows Kratovil Down Double Digits

  The campaign of state Sen. Andy Harris (R) on Friday circulated an internal poll that showed Rep. Frank Kratovil (D) down by double digits in a hypothetical rematch of their 2008 race in Maryland's Eastern Shore-based 1st district.

• NRCC Burns Cash in October for Special Election

  The National Republican Congressional Committee spent more than it raised in the month of October, according to fundraising numbers due to be reported to the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

• FEC Adopts New Travel Rules on Jets

  The Federal Election Commission approved new rules on Thursday that limit how Congressional campaigns use private and corporate jets.

• 
  The Bare Knuckled Pundit

• Make A Deposit That Counts - What Food Banks Need This Holiday Season

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  Times are indeed tough; for some more than others. Unemployment and anxiety is up, wages and hope are down. Hunger and need know no party affiliation nor recognize any political philosophy, though. Thankfully in America, neither does charity or... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Daily Cartoon - Stimulus, Stimulus Everywhere!

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Realizing the political trap they laid for themselves, the White House quickly abandoned the whole "the stimulus will create X million jobs" in favor of the more ambiguously-friendly and far harder to measure "created and SAVED jobs" shortly after... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Daily Cartoon - Up, Up and Away

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Daily Cartoon - A Matter of Perspective

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Softballs For Sarah

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  One of the arguments that critics have repeatedly used against Sarah Palin since her ascension to the national political stage is that intellectually she has no more substance than the stereotypically vacuous beauty contestant among whose ranks she... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  Open Left - Front Page

• Darcy Burner discusses what's behind DeFazio's remarks that Geithner & Summers should go

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  On Wednesday, Chris wrote a quick hit on Representative DeFazio's statement that there was "growing consensus" among Congressional liberals that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should step down.  He went on to say that Summers should go as well. Folks in the blogosphere have been saying as much for a long time now, but this seemed like something new, coming from a veteran Representative.  The piece Chris linked to ended with DeFazio saying, ""We may have to sacrifice just two more jobs to get millions back for Americans," underscoring that it was not just a general criticism of…

• Best Joke Of The Week

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  David Letterman: Sarah Palin says that she felt ambushed when Katie Couric asked her what newspaper she read.  This coming from a woman who shoots wolves from a helicopter! That's not a joke, it's an x-ray of the conservative soul:Implicit double-standard view of the world? Check! Implicit sense of entitlement?  Check! Casual violence?  Check! Casual violence towards those helpless to fight back?  Check! Bottomless sense of victimhood? Check! Utter cluelessness?  Check! Utter cluelessness about one's utter cluelessnes?  Check! And you thought conservatives didn't…

• Democratic Senator's Chief of Staff asks for help killing the filibuster

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:20 pm

  Josh Marshall posts the following email he received from a "Senate Democratic Chief of Staff:" So, what we might end up with is a Senate Democratic Caucus that holds 98% of its members but still fails to pass healthcare reform, AND a mob of angry progressives who are screaming for the heads of "the Democrats." This isn't fair, but more importantly, it's self-defeating. If progressives REALLY want to transform America, they'll make an issue of the anti-democratic rules of the Senate which make real change virtually impossible. Someone around here had a crazy idea along those very lines...I…

• Open tech thread: what do you want to see fixed at OpenLeft?

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Part of the money you've given to support OpenLeft will be used to hire on a new technical consultant who will be working for all of us to make the site better. We have a list of things we think will help improve the site in terms of design and tech, but since you're our readers and you paid for it, we want to ask you what you like, don't like, and want to see fixed, in terms of technical work. Spacing? Ways to improve Quick Hits? Formatting in different browsers? Anything you've got, leave it in the comments.

• I hereby unconcede defeat in the 1991 Onondaga County High School chess championships

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:16 pm

  This afternoon, I am unconceeding defeat in the 1991 Onondaga County High School chess championships. Eighteen years ago, after "losing" the semifinals to a freshman from Manlius Pebble Hill, I was pressured into conceding by a shadowy coalition of MPH chess team members (who hosted the competition, and probably sent messages to my opponent during the match), my employer at the time, Wegman's (who wanted me to work that night), and my teammate Julian Marshall, who went on to "win" the championship.  Julian was afraid I would defeat him if I advanced to the final (I mean, I like totally…

• 
  The Nation: Editor's Cut

• An Alternative to Escalation in Afghanistan

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:11 am

  President Obama is expected to make a decision regarding his Afghanistan strategy after Thanksgiving. Before doing so, he would be wise to consider an alternative which has, until now, been excluded from the systematic review of the gravest decision a president must make. That alternative is laid out clearly in a just-released letter to President Obama from the Congressional Progressive Caucus' Afghanistan Taskforce. Through careful consultation with a wide array of experts, including those who testified at a series of forums on Afghanistan earlier this year, the Taskforce has developed a…

• Real Simple Economics

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  Chuck Collins, co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, describes the difference between this financial crisis and those of the past. "The risk of this economic crisis is that people stay isolated, hunkered down and afraid," Collins says. "What's different from the serious economic crises of the past is the much greater potential for fragmentation and isolation--because we've lived through a couple generations of 'you are on your own' economics. So the idea that we can trust any kind of shared response is broken." That's why in January…

• Affectionate Jousting with Michael Tomasky

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:34 am

  My good friend Michael Tomasky has a blog over at 'The Guardian'... I consider it what he called it in his subject line--an "affectionate joust." (Mike is an ace former 'Nation' intern, a longtime friend, a brilliant writer and not-frequent-enough-in-my-view 'Nation' contributor.) In his blog he takes on (some of) my comments on MSNBC's Ed Schultz show last night. (A little friendly cherry-picking, Mike!) I don't disagree with much of what Mike writes. My first reflex is certainly not to blame Obama. (See my column on "Obama, One Year On"--posted below, for more on why I think progressives…

• Around the Nation

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  15 Nov 2009 | 1:35 pm

  The opportunity to sit down and talk with the remarkable American writers (and Nation Editorial Board members) Toni Morrison, Tony Kushner, and Walter Mosley is rare enough one on one. The chance to talk with all three of them together, about the future of our culture, is extraordinary. If you're in New York on Wednesday night, you have that opportunity to do just that--at the second of two Nation "Salons." In these intimate discussions (with a cocktail party to follow) we're bringing together some of the best thinkers in the World to debate critical topics of our time. The first Salon last…

• Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

  Katrina vanden Heuvel

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:10 pm

  When it comes to understanding the real economy and the struggles of ordinary Americans, Senator Bernie Sanders always seems to be ahead of the curve and fighting like hell for Congress to show leadership and be responsive. Now he's doing it once again with his legislation to break up the Too Big To Fail financial institutions that pose a threat to our entire economy. Sanders coined the phrase, "If you're too big to fail, you're too big to exist," back when he voted against the initial Wall Street Bailout in October 2008. Now, none other than former Fed Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul…

• 
  Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

• On staring at goats, cats and camels | Khaled Diab

  Khaled Diab

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Be it giving them Viagra, putting them in a pageant or paying $14m for them, every culture has eccentricities about animalsCan a man kill a goat armed with little more than his eyes? Well, the US military seemed willing to believe in the possibility of such superhuman powers, as revealed in The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson's book about how the American army investigated the application of psychic power in combat situations which has been turned into a film starring George Clooney.Another group of people who believe in the eye's destructive power on four-legged bovidae are Saudi breeders…

• There can be no 'banning of sharia law' | Bananabrain

  Bananabrain

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Besides being unworkable, a 'ban' on sharia law would pose a serious challenge to all our civil libertiesI do not support the aims of the "One Law for All" campaign and today's rally. Nor do I support that which they oppose, namely the use of sharia as a vehicle by Islamist groups to assist their nefarious goals. Obviously, as an observant Jew, the campaign's success would also severely inconvenience me by outlawing Jewish halakhah (religious law), not to mention the Church of England, but there are several reasons why the non-religious should also be wary. These concern one's individual…

• Making allowances for childcare | Benjamin Dierks

  Benjamin Dierks

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Cash incentives alone won't solve childcare – perhaps Gordon Brown should look at Germany's response to a 'stove premium'While Gordon Brown has had to rethink his plan to abolish tax relief on childcare vouchers, family policy in Germany took a different turn right from the start. It's the better-off who benefit most from the childcare regulations introduced by Angela Merkel's new coalition government.This is no accident. For years, it's been those on higher incomes that the government in Berlin wants to persuade to have more babies. The average German woman gives birth to 1.38 children.

• We'll defend freedom in Harrow | Shaaz Mahboob

  Shaaz Mahboob

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  If a demonstration against 'the Islamisation of Europe' takes place next month, our peaceful protest will be there to meet itEver since our successful demonstration against al-Muhajiroun (under the name of Islam4UK) on the 31 October which turned into a celebration of democracy and freedom, we have been inundated with calls and emails from Muslims and non-Muslims alike who have expressed their appreciation at our efforts to uphold democratic values and those of freedom and liberty in the face of extremism and bigotry. These are the values which are supposed to underpin our society and foster…

• Bloggers lead a new French revolution | Guy Sorman

  Guy Sorman

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  The aristocratic habits of France's rulers don't die easily, even in Sarkozy's overexposed reign, but they are steadily being erodedNo tumbrils have appeared in Paris's Place de la Concorde, but a revolution may be under way in France nonetheless. The trial of former prime minister Dominique de Villepin and the conviction of former defence minister Charles Pasqua have taken place in recent weeks. Now even former president Jacques Chirac has learned that he is not immune from prosecution. Is France's "republican monarchy", to borrow a phrase from Jean-François Revel, about to be…

• 
  Wired: Danger Room

• Marines Use Brain Scans to Spot PTSD Before the War

  Katie Drummond

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm

  The military has launched a new program that’ll use genetic testing and brain scans to figure out whether troops are vulnerable to post-traumatic stress — before they head off to war and experience that stress. The initiative is a cooperative venture between the Marine Corps, Department of Veterans Affairs and Navy Medicine. Testing on 1,000 Marines started last year, and another 673 were recently recruited: participants undergo a battery of exams to reveal underlying “triggers” that might predispose someone to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Examinations…

• Navy’s ‘Affordable’ Shoreline Ship: $477 Million Overbudget

  Nathan Hodge

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am

  It only took an extra half billion dollars, but the Navy is now inching closer to having a fleet of stealthy, shore-hugging surface ships. The future USS Independence, the Navy’s second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), this week completed “acceptance trials,” a sort of test drive for the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey. During the two-day trials, the ship completed demonstrations of the combat systems suite, steering, anchoring, and propulsion. Vice Admiral D.C. Curtis, the commander of Naval Surface Forces, said the successful trials brought the Navy “another…

• Military Video System Is Like YouTube With Artillery

  David Hambling

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

  Making footage shareable and searchable online has sparked a revolution in the cute animal,  stupid human, and delicious tamale communities. New software just might mean a similar upgrade for military video intelligence: Think of it as a real-time YouTube with heavy artillery. The release of the new version has just been announced. The U.S. military’s Task Force ODIN demonstrated the effectiveness of combining the video inputs from networked drones, aircraft and helicopters. When a roadside bomb went off, the team could wind back the video to see who planted it — and where they…

• Gates: Expect a Slow-Mo ‘Surge’ to Afghanistan

  Nathan Hodge

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am

  In early 2007, the U.S. military was able to “surge” five additional brigades to Iraq in relatively short order. But in Afghanistan, any major troop increase won’t happen overnight. Speaking yesterday to reporters at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates tamped down expectations of a rapid, across-the-board troop increase — although he suggested that the first reinforcements could arrive there soon. “First of all, the situation in Afghanistan is very different than the situation we faced in Iraq in the sense that we do not have the same kind of…

• Caption This: The Governator in Baghdad

  Nathan Hodge

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am

  Caption contest! Here’s California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visiting the gym at Camp Victory, Iraq. Tell us what’s really going on… [PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]

• 
  The Swamp

• Obama's approval: 49 pct, new Gallup low

  Mark Silva

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  President Barack Obama's public approval stood at 69 percent in the days after his inauguration in January, shown above, and reached a new low of 49 percent this week in the Gallup Poll's daily tracking surveys. by Mark Silva Public approval of the job that President Barack Obama is performing has fallen below 50 percent for the first time in the Gallup Poll's daily tracking of opinion. The 49-percent approval for Obama's performance, measured this week over a three-day average of surveys between Tuesday and Thursday, marks a 20-point decline from the 69-percentage point approval that Obama…

• GOP: Growing gov't with health care

  Mark Silva

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  by Mark Silva As the Senate nears a vote on advancing to debate over health-care, Republicans are holding ground against a bill which they insist will only grow the government and raise taxes. They don't accept the $848-billion price tag that the Congressional Budget Office has placed on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill, and they don't buy the idea that it can cut the defict over 10 years by more than $120 billion. "We are already experiencing record deficits and debt, and yet, this bill creates a massive expansion of government, growing the size of the federal government by over $2.4…

• Obama's 'new era of U.S. engagement'

  Mark Silva

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:45 am

  by Mark Silva President Barack Obama, returned from a weeklong tour of Asia where he is promoting "a new era of American engagement," says the continent holds promise for Americn exports that can spur new jobs at home. "Asia is a region where we now buy more goods and do more trade with than any other place in the world - commerce that supports millions of jobs back home,'' the president says in a weekly address today that was taped in Seoul, South Korea. "It's also a place where the risk of a nuclear arms race threatens our security, and where extremists plan attacks on America's soil,''…

• Barack Obama: Home for the holidays

  Mark Silva

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  by Mark Silva President Barack Obama is home. Home, where the hard work is. With stops in 20 nations behind him, said to be the most ambitious international itinerary of any first-year president, Obama faces the closing innings of a domestic policy year in which he insisted upon a sweeping health-care reform - by year's end, the president insisted. Talk on Capitol Hill already has turned to a new deadline for passage of the legislation: The president's first State of the Union address in January, a fitting stage upon which to hail the health-care initiatives which he made the singular most…

• Obama, Palin: FOX News draws, both

  Mark Silva

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  by Mark Silva Sarah Palin was box office on FOX News this week - handing Sean Hannity one of his highest-rated shows. Someone else drew a crowd at FOX this week, too: President Barack Obama. While Hannity's audience of more than 4 million viewers with the author of Going Rogue aboard at the start of her national book tour well exceeded the 2 million-plus turnout that the FOX evening news got with a long-sought Obama interview, both shows were ratings leaders for the No. 1 cable news network: Hannity's ratings were his second-highest for the year, according to the Nielsen Media Research count,…

• 
  Why Tuesday?

• A Letter to “Spirit of America”

  Barnett Zitron

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pm

  NEW YORK, NY – I was digging up 2009 voter turnout statistics and came across a user comment on CNN’s Political Ticker. This comment makes all of us at Why Tuesday? really gratified despite our nation’s increasingly low voter turnout. The comment is in in response to an article about low voter turnout. Comments on the post are now closed, so here’s our response: Dear Spirit of America (whoever you are), Although we don’t believe most folks are afraid of a democracy breakout, we at Why Tuesday? often pray for a democracy breakout before elections, bedtime and large…

• Increasingly Low Turnout, Increasingly More Often

  Barnett Zitron

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:37 pm

  NEW YORK, NY – On Tuesday November 3rd, a minority of New Yorkers ventured to the polls to cast their ballots. There were more than a handful of elected posts up for grab, most notably Mayor, City Comptroller, Public Advocate and District Attorney. Much was at stake in these elections, not only in the City, but also in Virginia and New Jersey. Be it a weak economic outlook, increasing unemployment, health care, gun control, education, gay rights or a slew of other imperative issues, City voters by-and-large decided to stay quiet, stay home, and not vote. At Why Tuesday?, we often remind…

• VIDEO: Why Tuesday? At 140Conf L.A.

  Jacob Soboroff

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

  Last month, as I let you know in advance here, I participated in a panel at the 140 Characters Conference at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. The panel was called Hollywood Politics: The Making of a Twitter Cause Celeb and it was moderated by blogger Maegan Carberry. We talked about how, in Maegan’s words, “Twitter has allowed real life celebrities and the newly created class of Twitter celebrities to participate in the political process.” My co-panelists were Variety Managing Editor Ted Johnson, Causecast director of strategic partnerships James Sutandyo and Participant…

• Why Tuesday? At 140Conf L.A.

  Jacob Soboroff

  27 Oct 2009 | 7:58 am

  Greetings to those of you finding your way here by way of the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars and if you’re not new here, our video coverage of the 2007 CNN Democratic Debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, in Los Angeles. I’m speaking today at 3:35PM PT on the panel Hollywood Politics: The Making of a Twitter Cause Celeb. My co-panelists are Wendy Cohen from Participant Media and Ted Johnson from Variety, and it’s being moderated by blogger Meagan Carberry. First thing’s first, I hope you’re already…

• Kapor: “Disruptive Innovation” Could Fix U.S. Voting

  Jacob Soboroff

  23 Oct 2009 | 3:59 pm

  “Disruptive innovation” is what we need to fix America’s broken voting system, Mitch Kapor, the election reformer and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Lotus 1-2-3, said on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Kapor made his remarks at an event sponsored by the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation (OSDV) at the home of Hollywood film producer Lawrence Bender. The event was intended to introduce the Hollywood audience to the OSDV’s Trust the Vote project and its mission, to “re-invent how America votes in a digital democracy.” Kapor was joined on…

• 
  Confederate Yankee

• Administration's Firing of Walpin May Have Been Part Of Cover-Up to Protect Ally

  Confederate Yankee

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am

  Doing things the Chicago Way: A congressional investigation of the volunteer organization AmeriCorps contains charges that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled "damage control" after allegations of sexual misconduct against her now fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA...

• Hacked Emails Show Climate Change Scientists Committing Fraud

  Confederate Yankee

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  The climate always changes. It is in a state of constant flux, and thought to be primarily driven by the warming and cooling cycles of our sun (which has a climate of its own), a fact that disreputable scientists competing...

• ACORN. Juvenile Prostitution. Los Angeles.

  Confederate Yankee

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:34 pm

  Stop me if you've heard this before, again. I'm really starting to wonder exactly what it was Barack Obama was teaching these people. Needless to say, the consistent, nearly uniform acceptance of the sex slavery of minors should be grounds...

• Womb Raider Vows Return to Normalcy

  Confederate Yankee

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am

  But we all know Andrew Sullivan will wallow in insanity for the rest of his natural-borne days....

• If Socialized Medicine Did This to Him, What Would it do to You?

  Confederate Yankee

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:42 am

  A dirty little secret of mine is a love of mixed martial arts. Right now, the biggest star in the biggest MMA promotion is heavyweight titleholder Brock Lesnar of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. At 6'3" and 265 lbs of ripped...

• 
  Ace of Spades HQ

• Hacked Emails Reveal: "Scientists" Faking Data to Establish Global Warming They Know Isn't ThereAnd Conspiring to Delete Emails They're Supposed to Retain for FOIA Purposes

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  [PA:I bumped this cuz its important and annoys the crap out of Charles Johnson] One of the biggest stories I've ever had the pleasure to link. From: Phil Jones To: ray bradley ,mann@[snipped], mhughes@ [snipped] Subject: Diagram for WMO...

• Overnight Open Thread - TGIF Edition (Mætenloch)

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:15 pm

  Welcome to Friday all. Just a few more days until we enter the holiday zone. Oh and don't forget that tomorrow is International Talk Like a Hobo Day Why You Should Never Talk to the Police Here's a fascinating talk...

• Stargate Universe: Life Discussion Thread

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:34 pm

  Late again this week. Somehow I seem to be getting stuck in fairly demanding legal discussions with judges just as the clock hits 5pm. That's gotta stop. No time to look for an SGU photo, so how about a re-do...

• Landrieu Successfully Louisiana Purchased; Says She's "Leaning Towards" Vote to Open Debate on Destruction of American Economy

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:44 pm

  Lincoln is our last hope. Thanks to AHFF Geoff....

• Home-Made Belt-Fed Full-Auto Shotgun; Plus: Super Ginormous Tank Skeet

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:41 pm

  I feel very bad for whatever miscreant is standing in 15 degree arc directly in front of this weapon....

• 
  Betsy's Page

• Off to a quiz bowl tournament

  Betsy Newmark

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:43 am

  We're traveling to SW Virginia today to a tournament so there will be no blogging today. This is the third tournament this month which explains my very light weekend blogging.

• Reality bites, doesn't it?

  Betsy Newmark

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:32 am

  Politico points to all the hard decisions that Congress is facing. Besides spending all their efforts now to craft their massive health care bill, there is still the pesky problem of unemployment. And all the other spending that the government must do. Remember all the appropriations bills to fund the government? Those haven't been passed yet.But just around the corner next month, Reid’s

• Watch out for non-indexed taxes

  Betsy Newmark

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:46 am

  Remember all the agony that Congress has gone through every year because of the Alternative Minimum Tax that wasn't indexed to inflation. Every year they have to twist themselves into nots to find the money to make sure that people aren't suddenly thrown into having to pay the AMT. Originally, when it was introduced in 1970, it was meant to include only the very, very rich. It only applied to

• According to Jesse Jackson, race is an ideological construct

  Betsy Newmark

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:36 am

  It's long been clear that liberals do not regard someone to be of the designated minority group if that person doesn't fall in line ideologically with their demands. Clarence Thomas isn't a real black man because he doesn't vote like a liberal. Democrats opposed Miguel Estrada's nomination to the Appellate Court because he was not a Hispanic of the appropriate ideology. I remember when

• The lack of logic in Holder's choice

  Betsy Newmark

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:32 am

  Charles Krauthammer takes on the logical holes in Eric Holder's choice to try KSM in civilian court while trying other terrorists in military courts.Finally, there's the moral logic. It's not as if Holder opposes military commissions on principle. On the same day he sent KSM to a civilian trial in New York, Holder announced he was sending Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, (accused) mastermind of the

• 
  Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

• 11/21/2009

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:29 pm

• 11/20/2008

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:38 pm

• 11/19/2009

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:49 pm

• 11/18/2009

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

• 11/17/2009

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm

• 
  Riehl World View

• Liz Cheney Attack: Greg Sargent's Dumbest Ever Post?

  Dan

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:06 pm

  It's always too good to pass up when a progressive gets pwned by their own post. Such is the case with this Greg Sargent post at Plumline. They must count on people not clicking their links. Sargent's silly smear attempt aimed at Liz Cheney is based upon her alleged lack of understanding of what the folks in a small town actually think as regards some terrorists to be moved from Guantanamo. He claims they are desperate to have thejm as they need the prison jobs. Small Town To Liz Cheney: We Want Gitmo Detainees, Not Your Fearmongering Seems that the good people of Standish just don’t…

• Video: Sarah Palin Disses Oba-Bow, Praises Bush

  Dan

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:51 pm

  This is just a short two minute piece of Sarah Palin on O'Reilly. The red, red meat. For the full interview check with Gateway Pundit.

• Filibuster: All 40 GOP Senators

  Dan

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:35 pm

  Pardon me for prefacing this news with a quote by the equivalent of a dear leader for some of my friends on the Right: And if that means the Democrats or the Republicans are destroyed along the way, well, good. Good Yeah, brilliant strategist, that Beck. Because both parties are the same, right? Anyway, this should get interesting: This Saturday’s Senate vote on National health care for America looks likely to turn into a long, drawn-out bloodbath as all 40 of the Republicans in the chamber have vowed to filibuster the bill.

• Some Sarah Palin, Andrea Mitchell Photoshops

  Dan

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm

  Original images courtesy of Weasel Zippers. Grab 'em and have fun if you want. heh! Click to enlarge.  

• Latest On NY - 23 Controversy

  Dan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:52 pm

  You can check out the latest on the NY - 23 voting machine virus issue at TCOTReport. A couple articles you might want to read through: here and here As far as I can tell, it all comes down to the word "virus" in quotes in one report. If someone involved said it, we need to know if it was said and what as meant by it. Until that's explained, one would think there might be an equal protections argument. That would be if a virus of some type kept someone's vote from being counted.

• 
  Wizbang

• Yikes: Body Sold to Russia Kebab Shop

  Michael Avitablile

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:26 am

  You think your life is bad? Police in Russia have arrested three homeless men suspected of killing a man, eating part of the body and selling other parts to a...

• Caterpillar Crawling Along. Barely

  Shawn Mallow

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:27 pm

  Back in February of this year, when a hyperventilating President Obama claimed that the Stimulus bill must pass with the utmost urgency, he had a pow-wow with James Owens, CEO...

• Gut Renovation

  Albert Araneo

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

  Jim Geraghty's got an interesting piece up today at the Campaign Spot: We find ourselves dealing with the frightening realization that with the Obama administration, there is no plan B....

• The "R" Files

  Rodney Graves

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  Where did those Congressional Districts come from? Sounds like a Job for Mulder and Scully.

• Global Warming Fraud

  Dan Karipides

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  The University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has had its email system hacked and a large amount of data released to the internet. The director of the unit (Dr....

• 
  Gateway Pundit

• Republican Weekly Address: Harry Reid’s Nationalized Health Care Plan Is a National Disaster

  Jim Hoft

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) delivered the weekly Republican address about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 2,074 page health care bill. Democrats plan on ramming a vote on nationalized health care through the Senate at 8:00 PM EST tonight. From the video: Sen. Crapo says, “This 2000-page bill will drive up the cost of health care insurance and medical care, not down, increase taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars, cut Medicare for senior citizens by hundreds of billions of dollars, grow the federal government by over $2.4 trillion in new spending, push the needy uninsured into a…

• Mainstream Media Ignores Greatest Scandal In Modern Science

  Jim Hoft

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:21 am

  James Delingpole at The Telegraph reported today on the mainstream media’s lame coverage on the greatest scandal in modern science. Stolen(?) classified emails and files were released yesterday that proved that the junk scientists behind the global warming movement knowingly perpetrated a fraud on the global community. The Climategate scandal (and I do apologise for calling it that, but that’s how the internet works: you need obvious, instantly memorable, event-specific search terms) continues to set the Blogosphere ablaze. For links to all the latest updates on this, I recommend Marc…

• Sarah Palin Slams Weak Obama “Going Around the World Bowing” (Video)

  Jim Hoft

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:41 pm

  Sarah Palin told Bill O’Reilly that it is ridiculous for Obama to be going around the world bowing down and apologizing for America. Ouch. From the video: Anyone who believes that this woman could not perform the duties of President adequately must have some kind of mental illness, which is likely liberalism. Here’s the transcript: Sarah Palin: We must exert the pressure that we can put on our allies and those who are not so friendly to us. Bill O’Reilly: Obama says he’s doing all that. Sarah Palin: He’s bowing to world leaders. That I think any other president…

• 22,000 Assemble at Kansas City Catholic Youth Conference

  Jim Hoft

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:20 pm

  22,000 are attending the the 2009 National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City, Missouri this weekend. My sister brought some students from southern Iowa to conference. Today thousands of young Catholics marched in downtown Kansas City. David Muenchrath sent this photo from the parade. Related… The Obama White House is at odds with US bishops over the abortion funding that is part of their nationalized health care bill.

• Evil. Dem’s Nationalized Health Care Plan Raises Taxes on Special Needs Children

  Jim Hoft

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:01 pm

  Pure evil. As if the parents of special needs children don’t suffer enough. Dems will increase taxes on the parents of special needs children in their nationalized health care bill. LifeSite News reported: The statistics are scary when it comes to the percentage of unborn children born with special needs who become victims of abortion. One fiscal conservative group says the task for parents raising such children is made more difficult by extra taxes found in Harry Reid’s new Senate health care bill. The measure has already been condemned by pro-life groups and the Catholic bishops…

• 
  Hullabaloo

• 20 Nov 2009 | 6:58 pm

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:58 pm

  Auntie Andrea And Little Lukeby digbyMore sage insights from the spawn of Russert:Andrea Mitchell: Luke, you've been watching all of the vote counting up there. Harry Reid is bring a vote to the floor, most people think he's a pretty good vote counter. With Ben Nelson indicating that he'll at least let it get to the floor, they're going to get this up for debate.Little Luke:That's what all signs are point to right now. But the interesting thing we can take away from this is a point that NBC producer Ken Strickland made that I think is great. It's that Harry Reid, no matter what happens, he is…

• 20 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pm

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pm

  Grand Old Party Trainingby digbyIn this interesting post Amanda Marcotte considers the case of the 10 year old who was tasered for refusing to take a shower (which I wrote about here.) She correctly defines this as child abuse and discusses the authoritarian mindset that informs this behavior.This seems significant to me. As does this. Tasering children is simply beyond my comprehension.Reading those pieces made me wonder something: has anyone ever asked America's hockey mom if she believes in hitting her kids? I'd be interested to know..

• 20 Nov 2009 | 6:01 pm

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:01 pm

  The Thrill (Up The Leg) Is Goneby digby..it turns out that Obama is a limp girly man after all.Chris Matthews: He is leading with his chin on just about every issue out there -- healthcare, terror trials, job losses, even the breast cancer report. He's exposed and vulnerable. His poll numbers are dropping.Is he just too darned intellectual? Too much the egghead? Why did he bow to that Japanese emperor? Why did he pick Tim Geitner to be his economic front man? Why all this dithering over Afghanistan? And who thought it was a wonderful idea to bring the killers of 9/11 to New York City, the…

• 20 Nov 2009 | 3:58 pm

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:58 pm

  Dance With Them That Brung Youby digbyLooks like Sarah Palin has disappointed some of her fans:She's making a big mistake. One of the most important things a country star does is cater to the fans. It's expected that they will stay for long hours and sign memorabilia and get their picture taken:Have you ever wondered why careers of country stars last a long, long time? The biggest reason, of course, is great songs. Another reason is that country stars know how to treat fans. Look at Kenny Chesney, one of the hottest out there, who is always ready with a smile at a meet-and-greet. George Jones…

• 20 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm

  Circus Circusby digbyRepublican strategis Cheri Jacobs said on MSNBC that the KSM trial will be a "referendum on torture." If only. Evidently, she was riffing on her piece this morning in The Hill in which she compared KSM to OJ Simpson and accused the Obama administration of having the trials in NYC in order to get a liberal jury to acquit Khalid Sheik Mohammed because they hate Bush and are trying to distract from their failed presidency:Obama will retread his “blame Bush” message to shift attention from his own failures. We will be implored to feel sympathy for al Qaeda after dramatic…

• 
  Eschaton

• I'm Sure That Will Help

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  Yes, Senate procedures suck but those procedures are put in place by... senators. I really don't think a bunch of progressives screaming at senators to change their own procedures is going to help. They should be changed, and the day some senators start talking about changing them I'll be happy to support that, but the names of those senators are?

• Morning Thread

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:57 am

  Oh teabaggers, you never fail to come through for us when we DFH bloggers need material.

• Late Night Thread

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:21 pm

• digby

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:12 pm

  Just shoot me.

• EATED

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:21 pm

  Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, Fort Myers, FL gets EATED.Just a little nibble.

• 
  Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News

• Levin: May be more troubling e-mails from Hasan

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:59 am

  Source: [b]Associated Press[/b] By PAMELA HESS and ANNE GEARAN (AP) – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON — There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services ...

• Sears Tower bomb plot leader Narseal Batiste jailed

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:53 am

  Source: [b]bbc[/b] The leader of a group which plotted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago has been sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison. Narseal Batiste, 35, also planned to bomb FBI offices, along with four other men who have already been jailed. Prosecutors said the men conspired ...

• Retired US official and wife admit spying for Cuba

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:48 am

  Source: [b]bbc[/b] A retired US state department official and his wife have admitted spying for Cuba for nearly three decades. The former official, Walter Kendall Myers, 72, had access to top-secret government information. Under a plea deal, Mr Myers will spend the rest of his life in jail w...

• New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:07 am

  Source: [b]NY Times[/b] WASHINGTON — Now that unemployment has topped 10 percent, some liberal-leaning economists see confirmation of their warnings that the $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed into law last February was way too small. The economy needs a second big infusion, they ...

• Chavez praises Carlos the Jackal

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:58 am

  Source: [b]AP[/b] Hugo Chavez is defending alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was a "revolutionary fighter" rather than a terrorist. The Venezuelan president praised Carlos -- whose real name is Ilich Sanchez Ramirez -- during a speech Frid...

• 
  Firedoglake

• Pull Up A Chair

  DeVeria Flowers

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Some Things Never Change… Good Morning Pups! Well, here we are the week before Thanksgiving.  I’m sure everybody is making their lists and preparing those recipes to fix a nice dinner for their loved ones for Thanksgiving Day. I won’t be cooking! After the annual Thanksgiving service at my church, I’m going to travel home to be with my family in Hampton, VA. Some of you won’t be traveling, but are fortunate enough to be able to stay at home.  I’m not looking forward to that traffic. During this season, sometimes I reflect on my loved ones that have passed on and their rituals…

• Late Late Night FDL: Club Poodle

  Eureka Springs

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Early Show: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck “Heaven Can Wait” Late Show: White Denim “I Start To Run” What’s on your mind tonight?  

• Late Night: Let’s Make a Deal

  Gregg Levine

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm

  I’ve been doing this all wrong. I have been dutifully showing up roughly every Friday night and delivering this post for months now, and I have asked for nothing in return. Oh, sure, a compliment in the comments, or a link, or maybe even a bit of well-reasoned pushback—those are all good, but I don’t require that in advance to write this post. Hell, I don’t even expect, no less demand, that you read all the way to the end. Well, I had a bit of a revelation today, and I am telling you, that all ends right here. I am holding out. No more Mr. Easy Post. I have some things I, um, need in…

• This Just In: Angry Crazies Can’t Get Along With Other Angry Crazies

  Eli

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:01 pm

  No one could have anticipated… After emerging out of nowhere over the summer as a seemingly potent and growing political force, the tea party movement has become embroiled in internal feuding over philosophy, strategy and money and is at risk of losing its momentum. (…) “These groups don’t play as well together as they should,” said Kevin Jackson, a St. Louis-based conservative author and activist who has spoken at dozens of tea party-type rallies and is traveling across the South with a convoy sponsored by the national Tea Party Patriots group. “They’re fractured at the…

• Reid, Wyden, Baucus Reach Agreement on Version of Free Choice Amendment

  David Dayen

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:45 pm

  Senators Max Baucus, Ron Wyden and Harry Reid (Wikimedia) A day before voting on the motion to proceed in the Senate, Ron Wyden has reached agreement with the leadership to get an amendment into the bill which would allow as many as 1 million additional individuals who get health care from their employers to participate on the insurance exchanges, including selecting the public option. Wyden, who has been insistent on opening the exchanges to provide more choice for all Americans, had been holding out on supporting the bill without it moving in that direction. This agreement presumably…

• 
  TalkLeft

• Saturday College Football Open Thread

  Big Tent Democrat

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:08 am

  While the Big 3 (Florida, Alabama, Texas) won't be tested today, there are plenty of interesting games on the slate. Let's start with the Oregon Ducks traveling to Arizona. Both Oregon and Zona can win the Pac 10 by winning out. If neither win out, it becomes a free for all. Oregon is a 6 point favorite. I like Zona (+6). In the Big Ten, Rose bowl bound Ohio State travels to Ann Arbor to face Michigan. Michigan spit the bit on this season a month ago. For all the talk about Rodriguez not having talent (which is true), the indictment I would make against him is his team quit on him. I think…

• Friday Night Open Thread

  Jeralyn

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:18 pm

  Bob Dylan singing Santa? Levjoy says on Twitter it sounds like a Yiddish folk song, and he's got a point. Here's Digby on Luke Russert's reporting on health care. Firedoglake has today's highlights. Fernando Bermudez left Sing Sing prison today, after serving 17 years for a murder he didn't commit. More here. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

• Fix Needed for State Opt-Out Provision of Public Option

  Jeralyn

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:04 am

  McJoan at Daily Kos explains what needs to be fixed in the Senate version of the public option in the health care bill: It's the date on which the states can opt out. First, There's no requirement of a waiting period before states can opt out, which in this political environment means the battle is taken directly to the states, because insurers will have until 2014 to get state legislatures to pass those laws. That could lead to as much as a third of country being left out, according to CBO estimates [pdf] (h/t Jon Walker). [More...] Here's the current language: (3)STATE OPT…

• Political Controversy Over Colorado U.S. Attorney Selection

  Jeralyn

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  President Obama, upon the recommendation of Colorado's two U.S. Senators and others, has nominated former Denver Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Villafuerte for Colorado U.S. Attorney. Republicans are having a hissy-fit. The brouhaha is over the criminal case of former ICE agent Cory Voorhis. Voorhis was acquitted of misdemeanor charges that he improperly accessed the restricted NCIC database and passed information contained in it to Gov. Bill Ritter's then opponent for Governor, Bob Beauprez, who used it in an ad to attack Ritter as being soft on undocumented residents while…

• Friday Morning Open Thread

  Big Tent Democrat

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:54 am

  Another busy day ahead. This is an Open Thread.

• 
  The New Republic - The Plank Feed

• Today At TNR (November 21, 2009)

  TNR Staff

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Capping Wall Street Pay Won't Solve Our Problems--But Breaking Up the Banks Might, by the Editors Can’t Get a Flu Shot? Don’t Blame Obama. Okay, Maybe Blame Him a Little. by Marin Cogan The Final Descent of John McCain, by Jonathan Chait Cogan, Cottle, Darby, and Khimm Have a Few Things to Say About the Cervix, by Michelle Cottle Ronald Reagan: Accidental Champion of the Black Underclass, by Zubin Jelveh Who the $@&! Are the New Heads of the European Union? by Amanda Silverman Democrats Think They Can Win the Climate Debate by Playing up National Security Concerns.

• The Fate of Lady Parts in the Senate Bill

  Suzy Khimm

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm

  It’s certainly been a big news week for lady parts, as some of my lady colleagues at TNR have pointed out today. But while the conservative fear-mongering about “government rationing” is an obvious political ploy, some vital questions about how much women will have to pay for preventative care in the Democratic health-care bill have yet to be resolved. Reid’s merged Senate bill left out part of an amendment that Barbara Mikulski had successfully introduced into the Senate HELP legislation, which requires insurance companies to include…

• EU Who?

  Amanda Silverman

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pm

  Today the European Union finds itself with two new top leaders--Herman Van Rompuy, the EU’s first president, and Catherine Ashton, the new high representative of foreign policy. If the names are unfamiliar, you’re not alone. In fact, the buzz surrounding Van Rompuy, who has been the Belgian prime minister for less than a year, and Ashton, who was most recently the EU’s trade commissioner, is that there is no buzz. Take this morning’s headlines from around the world: “Leaders lambasted over low-profile EU job nominees,” “Europe’s leaders strike…

• Another Word on the Cervix

  Marin Cogan, Seyward Darby

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  Like Michelle, we’re happy to see The New York Times giving front-page space to the new recommendations for mammograms and pap smears. And we, too, hope that the revised pap smear guidelines aren’t subjected to the same shameless politicization that quickly engulfed the mammogram ones. But we want to quibble with Michelle's point that “cervical cancer simply doesn't terrify women en masse the way breast cancer does.” Breast cancer is indeed a much bigger threat to women. This year alone, according to the American Cancer Society, about 10 times as many women will die of…

• Who You Calling Illegitimate?

  Jason Zengerle

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am

  I was pretty shocked by this new poll that found that 52 percent of Republican voters think ACORN stole the 2008 presidential election for Obama. I wanted to get some perspective, though, so I looked for polls that assessed voters' feelings about the 2000 elections. I figured that, even with hanging chads and all, fewer Democratic voters would have considered Bush illegitimate back then than those Republicans who now feel that way about Obama. So I was pretty shocked to find this CBS Poll from January '01, which found that 76 percent of Democrats didn't consider Bush the legitimate winner of…

• 
  The Fix

• Live Fix Chat: Palin, health care and Bill Simmons!

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm

  We chatted live on Friday with Fixistas from around the country about politics, the universe and everything. Among the hot topics: more analysis of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (if that's possible), a look at some of the best Senate races of 2010, and an update on the Fix's quest to become the "homeless man's Bill Simmons". A few of our favorite questions are below. The full transcript is here. Have a great weekend and drink a gingerbread latte for us! Gainesville, Va.: Hello Chris, Thank you for taking my question. Do you think that Sarah Palin is sacrificing a Presidential run in 2012 for…

• Friday Line: Ranking Republican leaders

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:14 am

  The Republican Governors Association held its annual meeting earlier this week in Austin, Texas, a gathering where -- for the first time in recent memory -- the GOP had something to celebrate: the twin victories of Govs.-elect Chris Christie (N.J.) and Bob McDonnell (Va.) earlier this month. Of the gathering, the Post's Dan Balz wrote: "Republican governors wrapped up a two-day pep rally on Thursday with an expression of confidence that the political winds have begun to shift in their direction, thanks to what they called a backlash among many voters against the policies of the Obama…

• Morning Fix: GOP leaders hesitate to embrace Palin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:45 am

  1. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's (R) repeated refusal to say that Sarah Palin is "qualified" to be president of the United States during an interview Thursday night with "Hardball" host Chris Matthews is illustrative of the problems the former Alaskan governor can -- and likely will -- cause the party. Asked by Matthews whether Palin was qualified -- in the wake of a Washington Post/ABC poll that showed more than six in ten Americans didn't believe she was -- Barbour responded: "Well, constitutionally, she sure is." Despite repeated proddings from Matthews, Barbour would go no further.

• Senator Giuliani?

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  Is former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani weighing a Senate bid? Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount of the Washington Post After months of relative quiet regarding the political future of former mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), the New York newspapers have exploded this afternoon with reports that not only has he decided not to run for governor in 2010 but that he plans to enter the Senate race against Kirsten Gillibrand instead. Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani, released a statement insisting that no decisions -- about the Senate or governors races -- have been made; "When Mayor Giuliani makes a…

• The most important number in politics today

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

  10 That's the number of points separating Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio in their Republican primary fight for the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez (R), according to anew survey conducted by Research 2000 for the liberal Daily Kos blog. Crist leads Rubio 47 percent to 37 percent in the survey, a huge change from January when Crist held a wide 57 percent to 4 percent edge over Rubio (state Attorney General Bill McCollum took 11 percent) in a similar Research 2000 poll. A Quinnipiac University poll released in late October showed a similarly rapid…

• 
  Top of the Ticket

• Fort Hood shootings were terrorism, says Senate Armed Services Committee chair Carl Levin

  Andrew Malcolm

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:52 am

  Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the powerful  Senate Armed Services Committee that will investigate the deadly Fort Hood shootings, calls them an act of terrorism. While some officials, including fellow Democrat President Obama in the early post-shooting hours, have urged caution in characterizing the shocking shootings that caused the deaths of 13 and wounding of 29 others on the Texas Army base, Levin tells C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program in a taped interview, "It sure looks like that." Levin has already been briefed by investigators and spoke with…

• Weekly remarks: Obama on Asia trip, Sen. Mike Crapo on healthcare costs, cuts

  Andrew Malcolm

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Weekly Remarks by President Obama, as provided by the White HouseHi. I’m recording this message from Seoul, South Korea, as I finish up my first presidential trip to Asia. As we emerge from the worst recession in generations, there is nothing more important than to do everything we can to get our economy moving again and put Americans back to work, and I will go anywhere to pursue that goal.  That’s one of the main reasons I took this trip. Asia is a region where we now buy more goods and do more trade with than any other place in the world – commerce that supports millions of jobs…

• Commander-in-Chief Obama shares stories with U.S. troops in Korea

  Andrew Malcolm

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

  The president spoke to about 1,500 American troops in South Korea, telling them at one point, "You guys make a pretty good photo op." He also promised to increase military pay, which received more applause. Obama reassured South Koreans that his country's commitment to their security would never waver. At one point he cited as evidence of that enduring commitment a soldier there, Skip Sharp, whose father fought in the Korean War during the Truman administration. So, let's see, that puts us about 57 or 58 years into the 100 years that, during the 2008 presidential campaign,…

• Sarah Palin apologizes for leaving 100 books unsigned in Indiana

  Mark Milian

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:21 pm

  Based on the above video (found here), the scene in Noblesville, Ind., at the end of Sarah Palin's appearance looked more like a protest than a book signing. Outside the Borders bookstore in Noblesville (wouldn't it be great if it was a Barnes & Noble in Noblesville?), dejected Sarah Palin fans shouted, "Sign our books! Sign our books!" as her personalized bus sputtered and prepared to drive away. Some booed as they held fresh copies of "Going Rogue" without a wet signature from Palin. However, they were plenty wet from the rain they had been waiting in. The…

• Oprah quits and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is displeased (only he'd put it a little differently)

  Andrew Malcolm

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:44 pm

  According to Chicago Mayor Richard "Have a Nice Day" Daley, you can just blame (credit) that dad-gummed media again for chasing that Windy City institution Oprah off of television after compiling a personal federal reserve of only about $2.3 billion. Oprah has announced she'll close down her daily syndicated chatfest in 2011 (see her tearful announcement video below). But she likely won't be gone long. O, gee, whatever will she call her own channel? The diva of daytime TV, who's seen the ratings slip some since her prominent presidential campaign involvement, says…

• 
  44

• 44: Obama says Asia trip about jobs

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  By Scott Wilson President Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to draw a line between his recent trip to the economic engines of Asia and job creation at home, calling it a "task I will continue to focus on relentlessly in the weeks and months ahead." Obama's message, which he recorded before leaving Seoul, South Korea, the last leg of his Asia trip, highlights the mounting political concern in the White House over what so far appears to be a jobless economic recovery. While expanding for the first time in more than a year, the economy continues to shed jobs, a trend that…

• State dinner superlatives

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:17 pm

  By Sarah Lovenheim State dinners, banquets paid for by the government and hosted by a head of state, are held to foster relationships following serious conversations concerning foreign affairs. Many U.S. presidents have held state dinners in the State Dining Room at the White House, a room that seats 120 people. Guests typically include foreign dignitaries, members of Congress and the president's cabinet, among others. The occasion's marked by entertainment, a four or five course meal and speeches. Black or white tie dress is often required. Then-President Clinton laughs during a toast by…

• Gallup: Obama approval rating drops below 50 percent for the first time

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am

  By Garance Franke-Ruta President Obama's job approval rating has dropped below 50 percent for the first time since he assumed office, according to Gallup's tracking poll. The poll averages results over three days. When Obama took office, the poll measured his approval rating at 68 percent for the Jan. 21-23, 2009, period. His approval rating was as high as 54 percent just two weeks ago, but the overall trend line has been down since the summer. "Although the current decline below 50 percent has symbolic significance, most of the recent decline in support for Obama occurred in July and…

• DNC raised $11 million in October -- and is raising more off Sarah Palin

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am

  Updated 11:55 p.m. By Garance Franke-Ruta The Democratic Party raised $11.5 million in October, a record month for a non-presidential election year in the post-McCain-Feingold era, according to a party source. That leaves the Democratic National Committee with $12.9 million in cash on hand and $4.4 million in outstanding debts. The Republican National Committee raised $8.7 million in October has $11.2 million cash and no debt. All told, the DNC has raised $66.3 million so far this year, compared to the Republican National Committee's $69.2 million. Including transfers and in-kind donations,…

• Senate ethics committee admonishes Burris

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:12 am

  By Paul Kane Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.) has been admonished by the Senate ethics committee for his public comments about his appointment last December to the body. In a three-page "public letter of qualified admonition" issued Friday, the committee formally reprimanded Burris for statements -- some made under oath to an Illinois legislative committee -- in which he denied trying to raise any campaign contributions for indicted former governor Rod Blagojevich for his political committees. Continue reading at Capitol Briefing»

• 
  Blue Jersey - Front Page

• Marriage Maddening the Garden State

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:18 pm

  Allison looks at Mad Men and sees New Jersey. Hell-o? Then sews it all up with a shout out to her ACLU-NJ friends to join her Monday in Trenton for marriage equality. By the way, this is Allison's first-ever post at Blue Jersey. Beat that with a stick! Thanks, Allison - - promoted from the diaries by Rosi "Maybe it's not the time for civil rights." It was shocking when Betty Draper said that to her black housekeeper Carla upon hearing the now-infamous news that a bomb in a Birmingham church had killed four little girls in 1963 Alabama. Mad Men has become an American pop-culture sweetheart…

• Quote of the Day: "Reality sometimes gets up and smacks you in the face"

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm

  Talking about Chris Christie's speech before the League of Municipalities in Atlantic City, Former Governor Christie Whitman offered this observation in Charles Stile's column:"He's sending a message that he's willing to take on some of the sacred cows. And he needs to," former Republican Gov. Christie Whitman said. "But we'll see. Reality sometimes gets up and smacks you in the face."That's right, we will see what reality does to Christie's promises. While she's talking about Christie and his tough rhetoric about taking on just about everyone, that statement applies on so many different…

• Menendez talks financial regulatory reform and implementing accountability on Wall Street

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  The US Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee has taken up legislation dealing with financial regulatory reform. Mondaq had more on the bill:Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd has introduced a discussion draft of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2009 (the "Dodd Bill"), which comprehensively addresses financial regulatory reform, encompassing the range of issues covered in the Obama Administration's proposed legislation and several bills pending in the House of Representatives. For further discussion of the Administration's proposed legislation,…

• Garrett vs. 1.4 million Home Buyers

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:42 am

  Live in the 5th congressional district? You can get reporting at Blog the Fifth you won't find in your newspaper, plus context on some of the nutty, nutty things your congressman does, plus opportunities to join up with efforts to make a change there. - - - Promoted from the diaries by Rosi. Cross posted from Blog the Fifth Representative Scott Garrett finally explained why he voted against extending unemployment benefits and the first time home buyer tax credit: So, in sum, we have a program rampant with fraud, which gives taxpayer dollars to people who don't legitimately qualify, and fails…

• Palin won't go rogue in New Jersey

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Sarah Palin is currently on a book tour following the release of "Going Rogue." We know that during the election, she was considered persona non grata by the Christie campaign and NJ GOP. Following the election, it appears she's not going to be making any stops here either:So unless they add some stops to the tour, she'll still have to see Jersey from some place outside of the Garden State. I know all you Blue Jersey Palin fans won't know how to deal.

• 
  Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

• Tyranny of the Silent Filibuster

  Craig Crawford

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Why doesn't Harry Reid force an old-fashioned filibuster that could make Republicans look silly? Because he can't. The Senate Majority Leader must get 60 votes to start the health care debate -- which he aims to try on Saturday -- and he'll need that many again when it comes time to try and stop the debate for an up-or-down vote. So why not make Republicans really filibuster, provoking the spectacle of marathon speechmaking? Because it's just not that simple. Under Senate rules, filibusterers need to do no more than call for endless rounds of quorum calls. The only drama for television would…

• Palin's Reading List

  Craig Crawford

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  Craig and Keith Olbermann discuss what Sarah reads. (MSNBC, 11/19) Meet Up with Craig and Helen ThomasGet a signed copy of "Listen Up, Mr. President"Saturday (11/21) 1:00-3:00 PM ETAmerican History Museum, Washington DC  

• Afghan 'Endgame' -- Is it the End or Just a Game?

  Craig Crawford

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  President Obama is now talking about an "endgame" for our military adventure in Afghanistan. That's how he described his intentions in news media interviews during his trip to Asia this week. Was his choice of words merely a tease for those who urge immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops? He might really be setting up a process for something more long term -- and more costly in American lives. When war presidents use such language, often it's an effort to appease anti-war sentiment while preserving the war itself. It's a game they play with words. They try to convince us to believe a…

• How Palin Steps Up

  Craig Crawford

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Having achieved lucrative fame, what now for Sarah Palin? To merely cash in, or gain real power? Cashing in requires nothing more than what she's doing - selling books, collecting speech fees, and possibly aiming for Oprah-like TV bucks to host her own daily talk fest. But gaining political power - such as becoming the first woman president - requires at least the pretense of something that has so far eluded her: SUBSTANCE. It wouldn't take much, really. Prove that she can grasp anything more complex than shooting a moose and history could be made. Palin has nailed the glib charm that so…

• Obama's International Learning Curve

  Craig Crawford

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  I guess a new president who was a state legislator five years ago has to travel abroad merely to meet and greet foreign leaders, avoiding substantive accomplishments until he knows what he is doing. Because that's all that seems to happen with Barack Obama's incessant international travel. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao emerged with nothing but rhetoric about "good will" on Tuesday after many hours together. We saw similar vague talk without deals following Obama's other international trips. At least Obama is not making the mistake of getting bad deals just to say he did…

• 
  Truthout - All Articles

• Depleted Uranium and the Medical Mismanagement of Gulf War Veterans

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:17 pm

  The United States insists that weapons containing depleted uranium (DU) pose no health hazards to exposed populations. This charade persists because an artful propaganda matrix has infiltrated and corrupted certain aspects of the radiation and biological sciences. The facts which follow will introduce how our debilitated veterans are being misinformed of the possible role played by uranium in their illnesses. read more

• Iraq War Veteran on a Mental-Health Mission

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pm

  Chuck Luther, who served 12 years in the military, is a veteran of two deployments to Iraq, where he was a reconnaissance scout in the 1st Cavalry Division. The former sergeant was based at Fort Hood, Texas, where he lives today. "I see the ugly," Luther told Truthout. "I see soldiers beating their wives and trying to kill themselves all the time, and most folks don't want to look at this, including the military." read more

• Venezuela Blows Up Two Bridges Along Colombia Border

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:17 pm

  Venezuelan forces destroyed two pedestrian bridges that spanned the border with Colombia, further heightening tensions between the two countries that have been at odds since Colombia agreed to allow the US military to expand its presence on Colombian bases. read more

• Robert Reich | Harry Reid, and What Happened to the Public Option

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am

  First there was Medicare for all 300 million of us. But that was a non-starter because private insurers and Big Pharma wouldn't hear of it, and Republicans and "centrists" thought it was too much like what they have up in Canada -- which, by the way, cost Canadians only 10 percent of their GDP and covers every Canadian. (Our current system of private for-profit insurers costs 16 percent of GDP and leaves out 45 million people.) read more

• Protests Don't Stop UC Regents' 32 Percent Fee Hike

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am

  Surrounded by campus police dressed in protective riot gear and armed with beanbag guns, hundreds of student protesters at UCLA Thursday chanted "Shame on You, Shame on You" toward the building where the UC Regents had just voted to raise tuition and fees by $2,500 over the next year. The protests had little impact on the UC Regents' vote, however, as all but one approved the two-phase, 32 percent fee. (The lone dissenting voteread more

• 
  The Back Forty

• Nebraska journalist says rural news outlets must boost Web presence for “hyperlocal” impact

  DebbySKoz

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pm

  By Al Cross Hyperlocal journalism has become a buzzword in the search to save newspapers, but Mark Coddingtonof The Grand Island Independent in Nebraska says rural news organizations have been practicing hyperlocal journalism for decades. Coddington explains that most people talk about hyperlocal in urban and suburban contexts, but “Most of this journalism is being done by small-town weekly (and sometimes daily) newspapers, almost all of which have been doing hyperlocal journalism since decades before it became a buzzword.” While rural journalists and theior news outlets may not…

• Pennsylvania plan to help returning rural veterans

  DebbySKoz

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:35 pm

  By Al Cross A new report from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire reveals that veterans with service-related disabilities are more concentrated in the rural places and the South, the nation’s most rural region. “The concentration of disabled veterans in the South and rural America is largely because veterans represent a higher percentage of the total population in these places, although there are also some differences in the rate of disability among veterans,” report author Beth Mattingly, who is Carsey director of research on vulnerable families, said in…

• Cooking Up Health Care Reform

  DebbySKoz

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:06 am

  By Debra Kozikowski I’m not much of a television watcher, but last night my eyes and ears were glued to the screen during the health care debate in the U.S. House of Representatives. My fingers tapped in response to online comments from far flung friends and colleagues, mostly Democrats, as the debate stormed through the evening. At one point someone posted, “What language is John Boehner speaking?” Quick quips ran the gamut from, “ I think we used to call it bull*#+* …” to ”I muted him.” to “He’s speaking…

• What recovery?

  DebbySKoz

  7 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am

  By Debra Kozikowski Front page news in today’s New York Times confirmed that American workers continue to lose ground when it comes to finding a job.  David Leonhardt reports that more than 1 in 6 American workers were either unemployed or underemployed. This reflects a broader, which many analysts and financial experts agree, more realistic measure of the effective rate of joblessness. The 17.4% figure includes officially unemployed who have looked for work in the last four weeks and discouraged workers, off the rolls for compensation benefits but still looking for work, as well…

• Jobs, jobs, jobs. Period.

  DebbySKoz

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:57 pm

  By Debra Kozikowski Just two days ago at 6:22 p.m., the U.S. Senate sent a message to the U.S. House that the Senate had passed H.R 3548 amended. The bill extends unemployment compensation benefits to help our nation’s jobless — at least for the folks officially on the rolls.  Putting Americans back to work is the key to our long term economic health and over the next weeks and months, the subject of jobs for all of America is something we all need to stay on top of.   Congress knows that this storm can only be weathered by gathering as much as information from as many…

• 
  xpostfactoid

• A Wolf whistle on bankers pay

  ASP

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:57 am

  Almost two years ago, FT economics columnist Martin Wolf surprised himself (rhetorically, anyway) by seconding a proposal by Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, that regulators force banks to tie bonus pay to long-term performance:Yet individual institutions cannot change their systems of remuneration on their own, without losing talented staff to the competition. So regulators may have to step in. The idea of such official intervention is horrible, but the alternative of endlessly repeated crises is even worse.Today, Wolf further surprises himself by…

• Oxfam's survey of Afghans: their wishes are no mystery

  ASP

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pm

  An Oxfam poll of 704 randomly selected Afghans reveals untold suffering-- 1 in 5 say they've been tortured, three quarters have been forced to leave their homes at some point in the endless civil war, 43% have had property destroyed. The survey also has what would seem to be some moderately encouraging findings regarding the counterinsurgency: 70% see unemployment and poverty as a key driver of civil war; 48% blame the government's weakness and corruption; 36% point to the Taliban; 25% to interference by neighboring countries; just 18% to the presence of international forces; another 18% to d…

• Mea Culpa re Obama in China

  ASP

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:41 pm

  In my prior post about Obama's speech and q-and-a with students in Shanghai, my usual intoxication with the intricate structure of Obama's speechmaking blinded me to the broader context in which he allowed the speech to take place -- with no broadcast to the Chinese people as a whole. To a degree Obama seems to have been rolled on human rights in China, failing either to raise the issues or gain the exposure that Bush and Clinton did before him. The FT's Edward Luce and Geoff Dyer portray a two-track muting:In contrast to the last two US presidential visits to China - George W. Bush in 2002…

• Obama pitches "The End of History" in Shanghai

  ASP

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:48 am

  By now the scene that played out in Shanghai yesterday is familiar: Obama first addressing and then fielding questions from young students in a far-off quarter of the globe.In these forums, Obama makes a case for values every American president promotes in speeches: freedom of speech, freedom of information, equal rights for all citizens, accountable government. But for those of us who admire the basic architecture of Obama's thinking and rhetoric, these youth forums are balm after the Bush years. Obama doesn't simply promote these values; he exemplifies them, in the complexity and clarity…

• "No one can describe a taste" - Why?

  ASP

  14 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  Via Andrew Sullivan, Jonah Lehrer channels Proust to explore why smells (and tastes) are so emotionally laden:Why is smell so sentimental? One possibility, which is supported by this recent experiment, is that the olfactory cortex has a direct neural link to the hippocampus. In contrast, all of our other senses (sight, touch and hearing) are first processed somewhere else - they go to the thalamus - and only then make their way to our memory center. This helps explain why we're so dependent on metaphors to describe taste and smell. We always describe foods by comparing them to something else,…

• 
  mcclatchydc.com: Washington

• Will health care even get past Senate's starting gate?

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:35 pm

  WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to approve on Saturday the start of a historic debate over health care legislation aimed at making coverage easier, less expensive to obtain and harder to lose.

• Couple plead guilty to Cuba spying, will go to prison

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

  WASHINGTON — A retired State Department employee will spend life in prison without parole after he and his wife pleaded guilty Friday to serving as covert agents for Cuba for three decades.

• For central California lawmakers, fundraising never stops

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

  WASHINGTON — The dollar chase never stops for California incumbents and challengers alike, who keep busy raising campaign funds for themselves and for others.

• Cosmetic surgeons frown on Senate's 'botax' plan

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

  WASHINGTON — If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The "botax" may be on the way.

• Lawmaker asks people to stop complaining, and gets an earful

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

  WASHINGTON — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver wanted people to stop complaining for a day and count their blessings.

• 
  marbury

• how the beatles made that sound

  Ian

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  This is porn for Beatles nerds: three of their greatest songs, broken down into their constituent recorded parts - including elements that were ultimately discarded - and put back together. Absolutely amazing.(It's from a BBC Radio 6 show from earlier this year, and I can't believe it wasn't bigger news at the time).(via Finkelstein)

• the one-woman economic stimulus

  Ian

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  The Daily Beast's Duff McDonald does the math and estimates that the Palin brand has generated media revenues of $26.5m in one week.(Photo: Adam Bird/AP)

• megrahi hasn't gone away yet

  Ian

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:03 am

  As the Guardian reports, it's now over three months since his release...

• taking occam's razor to obama's approval ratings

  Ian

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  The hyper-analytic media environment Obama's presidency exists in means that there are plenty of theories about his falling approval ratings. A popular one is that voters are in ideological revolt at a perceived shift to the left (an over-reaching government, etc). I've never bought this. As I said in response to Clive Crook's elaboration on this theme, the best explanation is the simplest. The economy is in a mess, and - fairly or unfairly - it's now Obama's mess rather than his predecessor's. This chart - via 538 - supports my analysis:Nate Silver puts it like…

• the iraq war: saddam's story

  Ian

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:48 am

  In Britain we're still trying to understand precisely why and how our government joined the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But the true mystery lies on the other side: what convinced Saddam Hussein to opt for such a suicidal strategy? He didn't have WMDs, or an advanced WMD programme. Yet he managed to convince everyone - including Western intelligence, his neighbours, and much of his own government - that he did. He never backed down from this bluff, even when it was clear to everyone else that Bush was serious about removing him, and even though he had no serious military defence in…

• 
  The Next Right

• Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs Jobs

  Brian Donahue

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  Stories and reports continue to break about the stimulus bill that was rushed through congress earlier this year and the fact that it has not succeeded in creating more jobs for Americans. Still, there doesn't appear to be any leadership or a unified voice raising the tenor of outrage about this massive failure by the Democratic leaders in Congress and the Administration.  The more people scratch the surface of the stimulus reports, the more they discover a government boondoggle - with non-existent congressional districts, counting jobs that were created without stimulus funding,…

• X-Sen. Harry Reid

  Conn Carroll

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am

  I don't know much about Danny Tarkanian other than the fact that his dad coached some exciting basketball teams, but if the rest of his campaign is as funny and on target as this ad, then Harry Reid in a world of trouble:   Average: 0 Your rating: None

• The problem with Recovery.gov isn't the data, it is the politics

  Soren Dayton

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:12 am

  The White House has gotten a black eye for two key problems with the Recovery.gov stimulus database. The first problem was that the numbers of jobs were bogus. The Washington Examiner has concluded that at least 10% of the jobs were fabrications. The second problem was that the data about congressional districts were clearly garbage. But I am not here to rehash this. There is a legitimate problem with the data. But the data wouldn't be such a big deal if the White House hadn't tried to politicize the data and claim victory.Recovery.gov is a tremendous success for the transparency movement.

• How candidates can pick up support from the Tea Party and libertarian crowd

  Stephen Gordon

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:47 pm

  On November 10th, the Rainy Day Patriots (the group organized in conjunction with Birmingham Tea Parties) and Campaign for Liberty hosted a gubernatorial debate in Springville, Alabama. All of the announced candidates were invited, four committed to the event, and three actually showed. The debate was moderated by local talk show host Matt Murphy and a representative from each of the sponsoring organizations. During the debate, Robert Bentley, Tim James and Bill Johnson all presented themselves as fiscal conservatives. However, one of these candidates decisively won the straw poll following…

• Government Health Care: Who's being naive?

  Jon Henke

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:36 am

  More than a few people have accurately observed that politics invariably turns into a a protection racket.  Note: None have made the point more enjoyably than the brilliant Mary Katharine Ham in this video. In the Washington Examiner, Dr. Paul Hsieh (of Geekpress) points out that, even if they only intend to give people lower costs and more access, government tends to make offers that you can't refuse.  We already see this happening in health care, and more intervention will only exacerbate it - especially as the budget crunch becomes more a more immediate problem. Suppose the mafia…

• 
  Global: Michael Tomasky | guardian.co.uk

• And off I go, sort of; but only to return | Michael Tomasky

  Michael Tomasky

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:36 pm

  I'm taking next week off, mostly. I plan on posting a reaction to the Saturday night Senate vote - will I be borrowing my headline from the Nixon era or the Bay City Rollers? We shall see, we shall see. I'll be flying to California Monday, where I'll be Thanksgiving-ing in the lovely East Bay. I'll try to post an item or two on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'll be closed for business Thursday and Friday, and it's back to the coal mines Tuesday, 1 December.And lastly a note to my Washington-area readers: There's no better season that the "holiday" season (!) for a little tipple, so we'll be…

• Michael Tomasky and the Fox News footage mix-up

  Michael Tomasky

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:34 am

  Michael Tomasky looks at the Fox News Channel footage mix-ups and urges viewers to be 'open-minded' about the mistakeMichael Tomasky

• More on the civilian trial | Michael Tomasky

  Michael Tomasky

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

  On today's WashPost op-ed pages, Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith, who worked in the Justice Department under GWB, defend Eric Holder's decision and say that in fact it's military tribunals that don't work that well:In deciding to use federal court, the attorney general probably considered the record of the military commission system that was established in November 2001. This system secured three convictions in eight years. The only person who had a full commission trial, Osama bin Laden's driver, received five additional months in prison, resulting in a sentence that was shorter than he…

• Mt. Rushmore here we come | Michael Tomasky

  Michael Tomasky

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am

  All right, it would have yucked me out pretty majorly if something like this had been produced under Bush. But hey, the guy is under 50 and athletic. I do wonder, though, if he caught it on the first take. I'll confess to you that it took me a few takes the other day to nail the one tricky riff on Can't Ya Hear Me Knockin'. But as those of you who are guitarists will know, it's harder to play on an acoustic. You should hear me play it on my Tele with the fuzz turned up and one or two (not more!) bourbons in my belly. You'd think it was Keef himself. Anyway, props to Brees and Polamalu and…

• Michael Tomasky: The war on Christmas starts early

  Michael Tomasky

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:03 am

  Some of you may not be aware, but here in the states we have a fine Christmas tradition, of fairly recent vintage, called the war on Christmas. This war, as you might guess, is being waged by secular liberals, who insist on saying things like "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" rather than the more straightforward and American "Merry Christmas." Logically, such talk leads ineluctably to things like forced abortion, euthanasia and other secret liberal schemes. I'm sure you can see the connection.There's even a website devoted to waging war on the war on Christmas:It is coming — just as…

• 
  Opinionator

• Whose Recession Is It, Anyway?

  By TOBIN HARSHAW

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:14 pm

  Polls show that the public is increasingly blaming Democrats for the economy. Will they drag Obama down?

• Free At Last

  By DOUG GLANVILLE

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:12 pm

  The ins and outs of baseball free agency.

• Introducing Opinionator

  By THE EDITORS

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm

  Introducing a new Opinionator, a site for exclusive online commentary from The Times, with columns today from Linda Greenhouse and Timothy Egan and The Conversation with Gail Collins and David Brooks.

• Western Men Are Doomed

  By DAVID BROOKS AND GAIL COLLINS

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

  Are certain groups of people better suited to a changing world?

• iPols

  By TIMOTHY EGAN

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

  Two women, both rich, accomplished, confident and full of ideas, are trying to become the fresh face of the G.O.P.

• 
  Hendrik Hertzberg

• Dept. of Me

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:16 am

  I’ll be at the Upper East Side Barnes & Noble (150 East 86th Street, off Lex) from 7 to 8 P.M. tonight to flog my new book "¡OBÁMANOS!: The Birth of a New Political Era" (Penguin Press). Also, over at the Daily Beast, Bryan Curtis has a very good, i.e., very flattering, piece about, yes, me. And the Washington Post’s Express Night Out has an interview with, er, me in which I actually sound semi-articulate.

• What’s the Matter With Kansas Dept.

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:46 pm

  Several thousand middle- and lower-middle-class (by the look of them) people gathered on the steps of the Capitol yesterday to denounce health-insurance reform as an apocalyptic threat to all that is good and free and right and American. They did this even though the proposed reform, which poses no threat whatsoever to their freedom, etc., would materially benefit them, their families, and their communities. This sort of behavior against interest is not peculiar to our era. Here is Mark Twain, looking back on the mid-nineteenth-century equivalent of today’s Tea Partygoers: In those old…

• Thank You, Markos Moulitsas

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:21 pm

  On MSNBC’s “Ed Show” just now, substitute host David Shuster’s guests were Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, and Tom Tancredo, the former Colorado congressman and 2008 Republican Presidential hopeful. After Tancredo expressed his view that the Veterans Health Administration should be abolished and replaced by giving veterans vouchers with which to buy private health insurance on the free market, Kos pointed out that he, Kos, is an actual veteran (he did a three-year hitch in the Army), as opposed to someone who, after supporting the Vietnam…

• In Which I Go Digital, or Whatever

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  4 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am

  I’m doing a “live chat” at 4 P.M. (E.T.) today, right here on newyorker.com. You can participate! Or just lurk! And I get to find out what a “live chat” is! It’ll be right here, i.e., in the box below. Just come back and click when the clock strikes four. Alternatively, you can go to Ask the Author. Hendrik Hertzberg on politics

• The Next Four Years

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am

  Some political predictions, prompted by the upstate free-for-all. 1. The Beck-Limbaugh purification of the Republican Party will continue apace. Populist nihilism—increasingly the default position within the G.O.P., especially on national level—still has a lot of energy left in it. As the party’s core shrinks (a process that will continue even if its share of the vote increases relative to the Democratic share), the resentful right’s stranglehold will grow stronger. 2. The Republicans will gain seats in next year’s midterm election. The party holding the White…

• 
  washingtonpost.com - Howard Kurtz (washingtonpost.com)

• A battle over breasts

  Howard Kurtz

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:55 am

  I have never seen a government health-care finding get shouted down as loudly or vociferously as this strange recommendation on mammograms.

• President wants a plumber

  Howard Kurtz

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am

  President Obama has had it up to his keister with leaks.

• The age of Palintology

  Howard Kurtz

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  The media are going rogue.

• Pugilistic Palin

  Howard Kurtz

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:32 am

  Sarah Palin loves to pick fights.

• Shep's solo path

  Howard Kurtz

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  NEW YORK-- Shepard Smith had barely started his program when a Fox News producer told him that their reporter had snagged an interview with Chris Christie, the challenger locked in a tight race with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.

• 
  WSJ.com: Capital Journal

• Political Wisdom: Choppy Waters for Obama

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:44 pm

  Choppy waters for President Barack Obama heading into the weekend: poll numbers slipping, Asia trip with limited successes to boast about, tough health debate opening in the Senate. Josh Gerstein of Politico jumps on the news that caught the attention of a lot of online political observers Friday: “President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have dipped below 50 percent for the first time in one prominent poll amid a raft of bad news about the economy and continuing job losses. The nation’s economic woes pushed Obama down to a 49 percent approval rating in the respected Gallup daily…

• Why Obama and Business Need a Thaw

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:42 am

  My latest Capital Journal looks at the tense atmosphere in the relationship between the Obama administration and the business community: As Rodney King once said, famously and in a quite different context, “Can we all get along?” Mr. King, the victim of a police beating in Los Angeles, was referring to race relations, of course. But the same plea now could be applied to relations between the Obama administration and the business community. That relationship, once so promising, has given way to an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion, as evident from the comments of executives this…

• Will Sandra Bullock Start a National Conversation?

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, is a former White House correspondent with two decades of experience covering Washington government and politics. Click here for Mr. Brown’s full bio. Sometimes ordinary individuals, just following their hearts, strike a chord with the American people, and a wave of public admiration turns them into celebrities. We would be better off as a society, especially as we enter the holiday season, if that happens to Leigh Anne Tuohy. That would mean the country might have a conversation with itself about the…

• The Afghan Debate: It’s About Seeing an Exit Ramp

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:16 am

  My latest Capital Journal looks at the debate about an Afghan buildup, which isn’t really about the buildup at all: Policy arguments in Washington sometimes take on an otherworldly feel — and so it is with the public wrangling over Afghanistan policy. Outside the walls of the Obama administration, the argument has been almost entirely about numbers: How many additional troops should be sent to Afghanistan? Should it be 10,000, 20,000 or 40,000? But inside the Obama administration, say those who actually have been involved, the debate has been much less about troop levels than…

• Unemployment: A Political Indicator Right Through 2012

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:42 am

  It’s pretty clear that the most politically important economic indicator for now is the unemployment rate. But while that idea has been much discussed as a factor in next year’s mid-term elections, it’s likey to remain true right through the 2012 presidential election as well. That becomes more clear from a state-by-state unemployment forecast just released by the U.S. Regional Services Group of IHS Global Insight economic consulting firm. “Although IHS Global Insight believes that the great recession has ended, job market recovery will be painfully slow,” the…

• 
  Reuters: Politics

• Healthcare bill faces first Senate test

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will cast its first crucial test vote on healthcare reform on Saturday, with Democrats close to reaching the 60 votes needed to overcome Republican opposition and open debate.

• Obama asks for patience on economy

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to show patience over the economy and argued that his just-concluded Asia trip was critical for U.S. exports, countering criticism he had returned empty-handed.

• Honduras de facto leader says will step aside

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:23 am

  TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras's post-coup de facto leader said on Friday he would give up his presidential duties for a week, a step Washington welcomed as a way to help ease a five-month-old political crisis.

• Ex-State Dept official pleads guilty to spying for Cuba

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. State Department official and his wife pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that they spied for almost three decades for the Communist-led Cuban government.

• Obama job approval rating drops under 50 percent

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:31 pm

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped below 50 percent in a second major poll in an indication he is suffering from the long healthcare debate and weakness in the economy, Gallup said on Friday.

• 
  Wired: Politics

• Vanish! How Wired Readers Caught Our Fugitive Writer

  Evan Ratliff

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:45 pm

  In an age when everyone is following everything, is it ever possible to disappear? On Aug. 13, one man drove out of San Francisco determined to stay hidden in plain sight and test this possibility.

• Shaggy to Bald: Evan's Daily Costume Change

  Nicholas Thompson

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm

  While on the run, Evan Ratliff snapped a self-portrait each day to document his constantly evolving appearance.

• Stories From the Hunt for Evan Ratliff

  Nicholas Thompson

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:40 pm

  After Evan Ratliff was captured, Wired asked the most active hunters to send in their stories. Why were they drawn to the hunt, what did they do and what did they learn?

• Wired Tests Writer With Series of Bold Challenges

  Nicholas Thompson

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pm

  With a week remaining in the hunt for Evan Ratliff, Wired decided to up the stakes with of five challenges hidden in New York Times crossword puzzles.

• Prosecutors Drop Plans to Appeal Lori Drew Cyberbullying Case

  Kim Zetter

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  Prosecutors have dropped any plans to appeal the Lori Drew cyberbullying case, thus ending the controversial and lengthy criminal case.

• 
  Slashdot: Politics

• Climatic Research Unit Hacked, Files Leaked

  kdawson

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:51 am

  huckamania was one of many readers to write with the news that the University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Unit was hacked, and internal documents released. Some discussion and analysis of the leaked items can be found at Watts Up With That. The CRU has confirmed that a breach occurred, but not that all 61 MB of released material is genuine. Some of the emails would seem to raise concerns about the science as practiced — or at least beg an explanation. From the Watts Up link: "[The CRU] is widely recognized as one of the world's leading institutions concerned with the study…

• Aging Nuclear Stockpile Good For Decades To Come

  kdawson

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am

  pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the Jason panel, an independent group of scientists advising the federal government on issues of science and technology, has concluded that the program to refurbish aging nuclear arms is sufficient to guarantee their destructiveness for decades to come, obviating a need for a costly new generation of more reliable warheads, as proposed by former President Bush. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and other Republicans have argued that concerns are growing over the reliability of the US's aging nuclear stockpile, and that the possible need for new designs means…

• NASA Willing To Team With China; Rumors of a Budget Cut

  kdawson

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

  eldavojohn writes "2009 has been an interesting year for NASA — from a new strategy to even closer ties with an old enemy. So it's perhaps no surprise that NASA has publicly stated that they are ready to team up with China. NASA Chief Charles Bolden said, 'I am perfectly willing, if that's the direction that comes to me, to engage the Chinese in trying to make them a partner in any space endeavor. I think they're a very capable nation. They have demonstrated their capability to do something that only two other nations that have done — that is, to put humans in space. And I think…

• Obama Talks Internet Freedom, China Censors

  kdawson

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:04 pm

  eldavojohn writes "In a town-hall-style Q&A with (hand-picked) Chinese students in Shanghai, President Obama made several statements knocking China's firewall and censorship. Quoting: 'I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity. And so I've always been a…

• Russia Recalls Modern Warfare 2

  timothy

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am

  eldavojohn writes "You may recall much ado over some questionable footage in the latest Call of Duty game. Well, that footage has led to a recall of Modern Warfare 2 in Russia. Seems the Russian government was none too happy about the portrayal of Russia in the game and decided to yank it from stores. Infinity Ward has responded with a patch that removes the 'No Russian' mission (the content in question) from the storyline. Before you overly criticize the Russian government, there may be some truth to the claim that the game's story line overly demonizes Russians as just terrorists as the…

• 
  Reason Magazine Full Feed

• Thanks For Your Support of Reason's Webathon 2009!

  Nick Gillespie

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:28 pm

  Staffers in the Los Angeles and Washington offices of Reason Foundation, the nonprofit publisher of Reason magazine, Reason.com, and Reason.tv say thanks to the more-than-600 donors who pledged over $55,000 in the fight for "Free Minds and Free Markets"

• Tea Party Movement Shattering?

  Brian Doherty

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:07 pm

  The Politico digs up enough stories of internecine fighting amongst the loose bunch of organizations supposedly responsible for, or furthering in specific locations, the Tea Party movement to generate a semi-convincing trend story that argues the movement may be "losing momentum." While the sort of petty conflict the story highlights between your Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Express and Tea Party Nation, (your People's Judean Front and People's Front of Judea...), are worth noting (and unavoidable in politics), I'd say that an idea (which I think is a more accurate description of the…

• DEA Still Erroneously Citing the AMA on Medical Marijuana

  Jacob Sullum

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  On Tuesday I noted that the Drug Enforcement Administration, apparently in response to an emailing campaign organized by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), had removed from one of its webpages the claim that "the American Medical Association recommends that marijuana remain a Schedule I controlled substance." That statement is no longer correct, since the AMA last week approved a resolution saying marijuana's Schedule I status, which makes it unavailable for medical use under federal law, should be re-examined. But LEAP points out that another DEA webpage still says the AMA…

• Vampire Family Values

  Noah Berlatsky

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  It’s exhilarating to finally find a genre movie that knows how to pander. The Twilight Saga: New Moon opens with Bella Swan (Kristin Stewart) looking windblown in a barely-buttoned shirt; it moves quickly to show us bare-chested Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), and ends with the dreamy declaration from vampire-lover Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) that all the girls have been waiting for. Add in a romantic triangle as Jacob and Edward vie for Bella, a heavy dose of angst, some unrequited (and fully requited) love, and it’s no wonder the preview audience I viewed this with kept bursting into…

• New at Reason: Noah Berlatsky on Twilight: New Moon

  Reason Magazine

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  New Moon, the latest installment in the wildly successful Twilight series, opens in movie theaters today. And as Noah Berlatsy writes, it's about much more than just vampires and werewolves.

• 
  Political Punch

• President Obama: Asia Trip Helped Usher in a New Era of American Engagement

  ABCNews.com

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:01 am

  ABC News' Jordyn Phelps and Lisa Chinn report: President Obama hailed his recently concluded Asia trip a success, saying the trip helped to facilitate “a new era of American engagement.” In his weekly address, taped earlier this week while in...

• Secretary Sebelius Celebrates the Tenth Anniversary of National Adoption Day

  ABCNews.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pm

  Secretary of Health and Human Services Sebelius celebrated the tenth anniversary of National Adoption Day at the Department of Health and Human Services today.

• Organizing for America Targets Sarah Palin

  ABCNews.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:37 am

  In his new book The Audacity to Win, Obama for America campaign manager David Plouffe recalls that Sen. John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was a fundraising boon -- for the Obama campaign.

• Obama Administration Starts to Publicly Raise Issue of Detained US Citizen Xue Feng

  ABCNews.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:59 am

  On Tuesday President Obama brought up various human rights cases with Chinese President and Paramount Leader Hu Jintao, a senior administration official tells ABC News. One of those cases was that of Xue Feng, a US citizen born in China...

• President Obama Gives Interview (of Sorts) to Dissident Cuban Blogger

  ABCNews.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am

  President Obama recently granted an interview to Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, which was posted at her website Generation Y. Sánchez, 34, was named one of TIME's 100 most influential people by blogging critically about the Cuban government; she emails entries...

• 
  Election Stocks

• Reid Reveals Healthcare Bill

  Guy_in_a_Suit

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:57 pm

  Late last night, a little sooner than we had expected, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid revealed his official plan for comprehensive healthcare reform. Our major concern has been whether or not the Democrats will have a coalition sufficient to block a Republican filibuster. Senator Reid appears determined to address this uncertainty. According to an ABC News [...]

• Reid May Reveal Bill By Friday

  Guy_in_a_Suit

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  For over a month now, we have been extensively covering the progress of healthcare reform through the House and Senate. As this quote from the New York Times blog puts it: The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, hopes to finalize the Senate version of major health care legislation this week. But don’t count the days. [...]

• Healthcare Battle Looms in Senate

  Guy_in_a_Suit

  12 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm

  The only thing holding up healthcare debate in the Senate right now is a prolonged estimate from the CBO on the cost of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill. This means it could come to a vote as early as next week. After the House bill passed by such a narrow margin (420-415) earlier this week, [...]

• Healthcare ETFs and the 2009 Elections

  Guy_in_a_Suit

  4 Nov 2009 | 2:57 pm

  Don Dion, an important ETF commentator at thestreet.com, had a great piece (subscription required) with the same basic hypothesis that we have been advancing here for some time. He points out that the same healthcare ETFs that dipped when Obama was elected are making gains after the GOP won the Virginia and New Jersey [...]

• Our Healthcare Portfolio

  Guy_in_a_Suit

  2 Nov 2009 | 3:03 pm

  Since May 21, we have been tracking a number of stocks in our own Stockpickr healthcare portfolio. We have an average return of roughly 10% as well as a 100% success rate. Today we updated the portfolio to accommodate a pessimistic attitude towards the health insurance industry. We also added a couple solid biotech companies. Expect [...]

• 
  Lehigh Valley Conservative

• Swaps and more swaps

  Randy Toman

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:06 pm

  The Easton Press carried this article November 19, 2009 by Sara K. Satullo  “Pennsylvania Auditor General calls for ban of swaps after investigation in BASD financial dealings”.  I’ll be quoting and numbering the short paragraphs from the above stated article. 1.  “To end the districts four outstanding swaps would cost taxpayers $25.6 million before fees as of Friday.”  (I assume they mean 11/20/09) 2.  “Terminating immediately would be an incredible burden. Leeson president of the Bethlehem school board said, It would break the back of the school board.” 3.  “Auditor…

• Get Ready

  The Outsider

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:21 pm

  “Société Générale of France has advised clients to be ready for a possible “global economic collapse” over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction.”   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6599281/Societe-Generale-tells-clients-how-to-prepare-for-global-collapse.html This article is written by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the “Telegraph” news outlet in the UK. He happens to be one of the best reporters in the world in my opinion. Too bad he can’t bring us good news. Make sure to read all…

• Typical Union Strongarm Tactics

  The Outsider

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:52 pm

  We expect some Union leaders to intimidate the people they disagree with but not the Boy Scouts. Nick Balzano, president of the Service Employees International Union’s Allentown chapter, did just that. Those Boy Scouts are a scary bunch and need to be dealt with, yes sir! Nick better sue that evil Boy Scout! But, uh-oh, the Boy Scout has no money. No problem, Nick will just sue the city for allowing that Boy Scout, 17-year-old Kevin Anderson, from voluntarily clearing a walking path in a local park, thinking he was doing everyone a favor! Not according to ole Nick! ”That’s…

• Obama’s Selective Decisions

  The Outsider

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:46 am

  Health-care decisions were made in haste and had to be passed immediately according to Obama and his party. On the other hand, the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan needs a few more weeks , even after waiting since August 30 after General McChrystal made the request.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/world/asia/21afghan.html  My conclusion is that handing out entitlements to his voter base falls under ‘community organizing’ and fighting a war in Afghanistan that Obama originally claimed to be essential, falls under being ‘Presidential’ and is not what…

• Questioning of Obama? But–But, He Sounds So Honest!

  The Outsider

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:20 pm

  We find that jobs are artificially created by creating artificial districts in our communities and that stimulus money is being sent to these phony districts. There is somewhere near 7 districts that are fictional throughout the United States. How much more of this are we going to take? I hope not much! It was an ABC journalist that spilled the beans on this one, so hope has a new meaning now.  http://technorati.com/politics/article/stimulus-creates-jobs-in-fake-districts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+trarticles+%28All+articles+at+Technorati%29 Others…

• 
  The Corner on National Review Online

• From the Belly of the Beast -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  From a $100 NRO contributor: I'm in the belly of the beast, two blocks away from the president's home in Hyde Park. Thanks, NRO, for making a University of Chicago student's life a little more sane, even as Mr. Obama and Congress seem hell-bent on destroying everything that Milton Friedman and the Chicago School once stood for. Contribute to NRO here.

• Open a Bible, Learn Stuff -- By: Mike Potemra

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:02 pm

  Last week, I poked some innocent fun at the idea of The American Patriot’s Bible: The Word of God and the Shaping of America. I have been looking at a copy of it, and am pleased to discover it’s not as bad as I had feared. I did, however, catch a typo in the actual Bible text (Daniel 5:27); I’ve had my hands on countless Bibles over the years, and you’d be surprised how rare typos in the Biblical text have become. (Gone for good are the days of the “Wicked Bible” of 1631, which inadvertently left out the word “not” in “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”)And I learned…

• These Are the E-mails I'm Getting This Friday Night -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:51 pm

  Subject: I usually contribute each year anyway, around 100 dollars, I'm willing to--tag an extra 50 on this year if you post on the Corner:"Meanwhile back at the ranch, Ma was in the cookhouse whippin' up a big Mesopotamia; but I Babylon.

• Re: Your Stimulus Dollars at Work -- By: Veronique de Rugy

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:40 pm

  From Oregon’s capitol city, Salem.  $13.5 million to release druggies back into the community against the voter’s expressed wishes to keep them in prison longer. Award Description:Oregon voters passed Measure 57, a citizen initiative that increased prison sentences for non-violent property and drug offenders. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) will use (these funds) to divert some of the offenders convicted of Measure 57 crimes from prison if they complete intensive drug court type programs. These programs will focus on intensive supervision and treatment, and immediate…

• From a $100 NRO Contributor -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  You had me at "immanentize." Contribute to NRO here.

• 
  TAPPED

• Lightning Round: Amazingly, Conservative Republicans Tend to Act Like Conservative Republicans.

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pm

  How is one to account for Barack Obama's precipitous drop to 49 percent approval in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll? Is is the grave pronouncements printed in British blog posts? Democratic legislators throwing temper tantrums because Obama isn't doing their job for them? No, as always, for every president, it's the economy. And has frequently been the case, it's instructive to compare Obama's approval to Reagan's, who came into office under similar economic conditions, and who also fell below 50 percent approval by November of his first year. Should we be even remotely surprised that…

• Friday Afternoon OH SNAP!

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm

  So you don't normally expect a lot of snark about financial regulatory reform, but today is different, because House Financial Services Committee Spokesman Steve Adamske just sent out his fisking of a recent National Journal article on regulatory reform, which I've posted in full after the jump. Here's a sampling: National Journal: What's going on with financial regulatory reform? I know that Dodd has a new plan and that Frank is expected to move his plan out of committee soon, but I still can't tell what the administration's plan is. Why so many plans? Well, for starters, this re-regulation…

• A Devil of a Job for Democrats.

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

  Terence Samuel explains why Democrats need to focus on jobs: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will win his motion to proceed on a health-care reform package that should shave $127 billion off the federal budget deficit over the next decade -- the legislation will come to the floor of the Senate before Thanksgiving. In practical terms, that means the Obama administration will likely get to mark its first year in office with a remarkable set of legislative triumphs that, in addition to health care, could include some kind of financial reform legislation and maybe even a climate change bill.

• What Can the Chinese Do To Our Economy? To Theirs?

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

  Matt Yglesias asks what, exactly, China is going to do to our economy if the U.S. government steps up its criticisms of their various human rights violations or lack of cooperation on issues like Iran or Afghanistan. The correct answer is, he notes, that they can do very little. I wrote about this in the spring when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner made his own voyage to China: But outside of the political sideshow, the much-hyped Chinese ownership of U.S. debt and the controversy over exchange rates (which has led some Americans to accuse the Chinese of currency manipulation) isn't likely to…

• Three Strategies for Real Economic Recovery.

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am

  With the unemployment rate the highest it's been in 25 years, The Roosevelt Institute asked historians, economists and other public thinkers to reflect on the lessons of the New Deal and explore new, big ideas for how to get America back to work. TAPPED will be cross-posting the 10-part series with the New Deal 2.0 blog. In this installment, James Carr argues for targeting hardest-hit communities with job training and access. As this month’s unemployment numbers confirm, the nation’s economy continues to suffer despite recent positive and relatively impressive productivity numbers.

• 
  Ezra Klein

• Tab dump

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  1) Sarah Palin's foreign policy doctrine, or lack thereof. 2) A small win for Ron Wyden and choice. 3) Brad DeLong is puzzled by America's political economy. 4) Paul Krugman on the "phantom menace," though not the one you're thinking of. Recipe of the day: My family won't go for this, but I always liked Mark Mittman's idea to braise turkey. The Senate wanted to wish you a good weekend, but they couldn't schedule a cloture vote on the resolution until tomorrow.

• Excise tax: 'a rare win-win opportunity'

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:21 pm

  That's economist Jonathan Gruber's take, anyway. He's got a new analysis of the revised excise tax that's present in the Senate plan. The takeaway numbers are that the tax is expected to raise net worker wages from 2013 through 2019 by $234 billion, resulting in an average wage increase of $700 per household by 2019. About two-thirds of these gains go to families with incomes below $100,000, and more than 90 percent go to families with incomes below $200,000. Full memo here (warning: word document). This is probably the most important benefit of cost control, and the one that's least…

• The worst policy idea in the world gets a bit better but still isn't good enough

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pm

  Harry Reid's bill has made a number of complicated changes to the free-rider provision, a.k.a. The Worst Policy Idea in the World. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says these tweaks make the free rider a bit better, although others disagree with that analysis, and the whole thing is so bizarrely complex that I'm not sure anyone can confidently predict how employers will react to it. Full story here. But the real answer to this policy isn't to tweak it. It's to replace it with the House's straightforward employer mandate. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities is too polite to…

• Inflation and the Fed

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am

  In general, the Fed's behavior tends to track the Taylor Rule, which is an economic formula based off a mixture of unemployment and inflation. Don't worry, there's not going to be a quiz. Suffice to say that the situation remains bad enough, and strange enough, that the Taylor Rule implies the Fed's interest rates should actually be negative, which would mean they'd be paying people to borrow money. They can't do that, of course, so the incredibly low rates they're offering are actually far, far too high. That's the context for the debate over whether the Fed should fear inflation, and begin…

• Mary Landrieu gets $100 million from health-care reform bill she doesn't yet support

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:05 am

  It's nice to be an undecided senator in a 60-vote Senate: Sen. Mary Landrieu's state of Louisiana is still ailing years after Hurricane Katrina devastated its largest city. So Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could be killing two birds with one stone by including in his health care bill $100 million in federal Medicaid aid for any states (aka, Louisiana) that have suffered a natural disaster in the last seven years. That's much needed help for the poor in Louisiana, and also a sweetener for Landrieu, whose support for health care reform has never been terribly certain. Cynical question: How…

• 
  RedState

• The Second Stimulus

  ()

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:55 am

  It was this past week in which Barack Obama said that deficit spending could cause a double dip recession. Nonetheless, a “New Consensus Views Stimulus as Worthy Step.” That, at least, is the headline in the New York Times as it tries, on its front page above the fold, to push for a second stimulus. But things are not as they seem. Remember, Obama says more deficit spending is bad. Then there is this: Now that unemployment has topped 10 percent, some liberal-leaning economists see confirmation of their warnings that the $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed into law…

• Former Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Thanks You for Paying for His Appeal

  ()

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm

  Former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson, convicted on bribery and racketeering charges and sentenced to a Congressional-record 13-year sentence, recently received a couple of significant holiday-season gifts from Judge T.J. Ellis III. Recently, Judge Ellis decided that Jefferson is not a flight risk and may remain free pending appeal, a process that may take a year or more. During that time, Jefferson must wear a monitor and may not travel without prior court approval. Today, Judge Ellis agreed that Jefferson’s legal expenses will be covered by the court during his appeal.

• Your Prescription is Ready

  ()

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:16 pm

  Someone forwarded me this via email and it was too good not to share. I’m not sure of the original source, but if anyone can identify it for me, I’m happy to credit it. UPDATE: Near as I can tell, the logo at the bottom appears to reference this site. UPDATE 2 by Erick: The numbers appears to come from the House Republican Conference’s policy shop, which is the group overseen by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). 5.5 million — Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model…

• With the Congressional Switchboard Shut Down

  ()

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pm

  Go here and enter your zipcode. You’ll get a quick talking point and the local office number of your United States Senators. Tell them to vote NO on cloture.

• On Hannity Tonight

  ()

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:19 pm

  I’ll be on Sean Hannity’s Great American Panel tonight at 9:30 with Gov. Bob Ehrlich and Rev. Jacques DeGraff. It’s going to be a really good panel tonight, so I hope you’ll tune in to it. Consider this an open thread.

• 
  News

• Skelton not happy with 9/11 trials

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pm

  The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee expressed opposition today to Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to give civilian trials to the 9/11 plotters.Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) penned a letter to Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggesting military trials would be a more appropriate venue for the accused terrorists. "As a former prosecutor, I am not yet convinced that the right decision was made in these cases, nor that the presumption in favor of federal criminal trials over military tribunals for these detainees should continue," Skelton wrote.The Missouri Democrat…

• Gingrich to help raise cash for Hastert's son

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm

  One former House Speaker is helping another former Speaker's son get elected to Congress.Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will headline a fundraiser Dec. 11 for Illinois congressional candidate Ethan Hastert.Hastert, an attorney, is running for the seat of his former House Speaker father, Dennis (R). He faces primary opposition from state Sen. Randy Hultgren, among others, but he has secured much of the establishment's support.According to the younger Hastert's campaign, the event will be a breakfast held in St. Charles, Ill.“In addition to Speaker Gingrich’s support, we have the…

• Landrieu to announce health vote Saturday morning

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm

  Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of two Democratic centrists still not committed to supporting a crucial test vote on healthcare reform Saturday night, will not announce her decision until that morning. "I would say I’m still neutral," said Landrieu, who explained she was still reviewing the legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Wednesday but would make a statement Saturday morning ahead of the upper chamber's vote on a procedural motion that would enable a full debate on the legislation after Thanksgiving. {mosads}Landrieu, however, hinted that her position…

• GOPers tie breast cancer change to healthcare reform

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pm

  Republican senators tried to make the case today that new recommendations on breast cancer screening foreshadow the rationing that would take place under Democratic healthcare reform.A preventive medicine task force recommended last week that women not necessarily get mammograms before age 50, and even then get them only two years."This is how rationing starts, and that's the point," Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the Republican Whip, said at a press conference today. "Delay of care, that's how it begins. Then denial of care. At first, it's guidelines, then the insurance companies...adopt those…

• Mass. First Lady to back Capuano

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:43 pm

  Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's (D) wife, Diane, will endorse Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) on Saturday in the race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.Gov. Patrick remains unpopular in the state, but his wife's backing will at least signal the governor's feelings to potential supporters.Of course, about the only endorsement that is likely to be a game-changer in this race would be that of Kennedy's widow or one of his sons.Here is Diane Patrick's statement: “Mike and Barbara offered us tremendous support and friendship throughout the course of Deval’s campaign. I am very pleased to have…

• 
  Wolcott's Blog

• Project Runway Crosses Finish Line with Sad Expression Made of Clay

  James Wolcott

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  What was with last night's Season 6 finale of Project Runway? It was as if a bolt of bad news had been delivered backstage to which the audience wasn't privy but which left the judges...

• Veronika

  James Wolcott

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

• Elongated Limbs and Picturesque Rooftops: Frederick Wiseman's La Danse

  James Wolcott

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  About two hours into the Film Forum's screening of Frederick Wiseman's La Danse: Paris Opera Ballet, give or take an eternity, Laura asked if I'd fetch her a bottled water, her throat in need of...

• Scraping the Bottom of the Tar Barrel

  James Wolcott

  14 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Such a testy bunch the right-bloggers have become, the triumphalism of their post 9/11 Victor Davis Hanson high noon tipping over and shattering into a thousand bitter shards, pinpricked with anger and paranoia. Each day...

• Laughter Dying of Loneliness on a Saturday Night

  James Wolcott

  14 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  That was some sorry swath of comedy material the writers wrapped January Jones in last night on SNL, the Rear Window parody one long whoopie cushion shtick and the spacy local reporter/Dairy Queen employee routine...

• 
  Obama HQ

• Now, the Senate

  Christopher Hass

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  From Mitch Stewart:On Wednesday night, Senate leadership unveiled their final health reform package. It's a great bill that accomplishes President Obama's core goals for reform: provide more security for those who have insurance, guarantee affordable coverage options for those who don't, and rein in the cost of care for American businesses and families. And it accomplishes all of this while reducing the deficit by as much as $777 billion over the next 20 years. Now, we're in the final sprint toward reform, and the next challenge is already here. Today, senators are listening carefully to see…

• Morning News

  Cloe Axelson

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  From the New York Times: The Senate is expected to vote Saturday on whether to take up [health reform] legislation. The majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, refused to say Thursday whether he had the 60 votes needed to clear that procedural hurdle. While the guts of the Senate and House bills are similar, Mr. Reid came up with a new method of financing coverage, not found in any other major health bill. His proposal would significantly increase the Medicare payroll tax for high-income people. The Senate and House bills would provide coverage to millions of the uninsured by…

• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

  Cloe Axelson

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

  Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled the Senate’s version of the health insurance reform legislation – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – this afternoon at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol. The bill achieves President Obama’s three principles of reform: more security and stability for people who have insurance; more quality, affordable options to those who don’t; and bringing down the high costs of care for American families, businesses and our government itself. The bill would extend coverage to 31 million Americans and reduce the deficit by…

• Morning News

  Cloe Axelson

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am

  From the New York Times: Democratic leaders in the Senate on Wednesday unveiled their proposal for overhauling the health care system, outlining legislation that they said would cover most of the uninsured while reducing the federal budget deficit.Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said at an evening news conference that the legislation, embodying President Obama’s signature domestic initiative, would impose new regulations on insurers, extend coverage to 31 million people who currently do not have any and add new benefits to Medicare.Mr. Reid said the bill, despite a…

• An Open Letter to Rep. Gerlach: Please Reconsider Your “No” Vote on Health Insurance Reform

  Kerri

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:22 pm

  The following is an open letter to Representative Gerlach asking him to reconsider his “No” vote on health insurance reform. A copy of this letter was also hand-delivered to his office. Representative Gerlach: On November 4, 2008 I was one of the majority of voters in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District who voted for President Obama. Like so many others, I voted not only for the man and his leadership qualities, but also for his stance on the critical issues facing our country. I voted to change the status quo and to move this country in a better direction. …

• 
  SCOTUSblog

• Friday Round-up

  Anna Christensen

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:42 am

  At the WSJ Law Blog this morning, Ashby Jones previews McDonald v. City of Chicago, in which the Court will examine the constitutionality of a Chicago gun-control ordinance and, more generally, the Second Amendment’s applicability to the states.  The petitioners, in a brief filed this week, rely on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities clause to argue that the right to bear arms is a “privilege” that the states cannot abridge; however, Jones notes that the petitioners’ originalist reading could “open the door advocating for the existence of other rights that have…

• Will the Court Take On Judicial Takings?: Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Argument Preview

  Anna Christensen

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm

  Below, Elisabeth Oppenheimer of Stanford Law School previews Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection (08-1151), which will be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, December 2.  Check the Stop the Beach Renourishment SCOTUSwiki page for additional updates. On Wednesday, December 2, the Court will hear oral argument in No. 08-1151, Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection.  The casepresents the Court with an opportunity to develop new law on a question that has long attracted attention from scholars and,…

• Academic Round-up

  David Stras

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pm

  For those that use empirical data to study the Supreme Court, the new Supreme Court Database is now live at supremecourtdatabase.org.  The biggest advantage to the new version of the Database is that it is now more user-friendly and accessible to those who study the Court, but may not have empirical background or training.   I have not made use of the new online version of the Database yet, but I am told that it is quite remarkable.  Right now, the Database has case and justice-centered data for the period from 1953-2008, but Andrew Martin (one of the lead investigators on the project)…

• Petitions to Watch | Conference of 11.24.09

  Erin Miller

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

  This edition of “Petitions to Watch” features cases up for consideration at the Justices’ next private conference on Tuesday, November 24.  As always, it lists the petitions on the Court’s paid docket that Tom has deemed to have a reasonable chance of being granted.  Links to all previous editions are available in our SCOTUSwiki archive. Docket: 08-1392 Title: Massis v. Holder Issues: (1) Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in concluding that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain a legal challenge to an alien’s deportation on the ground that the alien had not raised that issue before…

• Thursday Round-Up

  Adam Chandler

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:01 am

  Linda Greenhouse has an article in the Charleston Law Review’s Supreme Court Preview issue (starting at page 37) in which she assesses Justice Breyer’s jurisprudence on the Court, at the presumed midpoint of his tenure there.  Greenhouse writes that Breyer is the “quintessential Enlightenment Supreme Court Justice,” someone who “believes in evidence and in expertise and in the power of both facts and experts to persuade.” In an essay for the Yale Law Journal Online, Aaron Zelinsky traces the history of the judge-umpire analogy, which was originally aimed at trial court judges and…

• 
  PolitiFact.com statements

• John Boehner: Senate health care legislation will "levy a new 'abortion premium' fee on Americans in the government-run plan."

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:23 pm

  The Truth-o-Meter says: False | Boehner claims that the Senate health care bill includes an abortion fee Republicans have found another flaw in the health care bill: They say Democrats are trying to impose a monthly abortion fee on anyone enrolled in the public health care option."Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new 'abortion premium' fee on Americans in the government-run plan," wrote House Republican Leader John Boehner on the GOP's Web site.The House version of the health care bill included an amendment promoted by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.,…

• Mike Enzi: The Senate health care bill "would leave 24 million people without insurance coverage."

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pm

  The Truth-o-Meter says: True | Sen. Mike Enzi says Senate health care bill will leave 24 million uninsured Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, whom Democrats had once hoped to woo for bipartisan support of a health care bill, attacked the version put forth on Nov. 18, 2009, by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Like the Pelosi bill, the Reid bill is government-centered, not patient-centered," Enzi said "It’s chock-full of new taxes and higher health care costs that would threaten jobs, weaken our economy, punish families and small businesses trying to make ends meet, and stick our…

• Joe Lieberman: If you look at last year's presidential campaign, "you can't find a mention of public option."

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pm

  The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | The public option was not discussed much during the campaign Democrats hoping to pass health care legislation through the Senate need 60 votes to begin consideration of the bill and, ultimately, to pass it. That means every Democrat and the two independents who generally vote with them need to approve. One of those independents is Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Lieberman favors health care reform but opposes the public option. He told Politico that he was keeping "all my options open" when it comes to votes on health care.He said the public option has…

• Orrin Hatch: The Senate health care bill is longer than Tolstoy's 'War and Peace.'

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am

  The Truth-o-Meter says: Barely True | Hatch says Senate health care bill is longer than 'War and Peace' They are both epic works of literature. One begins like this:"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist—I really believe he is Antichrist—I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have…

• Chain e-mail: Obama "closed offshore tax safe havens."

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm

  The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Chain e-mail claims Obama closed offshore tax safe havens We got a chain e-mail recently that purports to list 90 accomplishments from President Barack Obama's first six months in office. Unlike most chain e-mails we get, this one was signed by its author, Robert Watson, a professor of American Studies at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Watson said he spoke last spring at Democratic political clubs and was asked by some members to compile the list as talking points to balance some of the claims about the Obama administration coming from Republicans. The…

• 
  Balloon Juice

• Oh, the Palinites

  DougJ

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  I am down near the Borders where the Palin book signing takes place later today. Quite a crowd, the line is close to a quarter mile long. This is to get wristbands that entitle you to get a book signed. There is one news crew there following it too. The crowd is in good spirits and they aren’t really teabaggers per se by and large. I saw one Don’t Tread On Me flag and a couple weird bumperstickers, but other than that, not much. I wouldn’t have known it was political. It could easily have been a Kenny Chesney concert crowd or something like that. Except that the crowd is a…

• Quote of the Day

  John Cole

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  “Even through a veil of censorship and propaganda, the Chinese people managed a clearer view of Obama’s visit than the US media did.”- Tish Durkin (via James Fallows)

• Paid In Full

  John Cole

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:59 am

  Mary Landrieu, on the big advantages of bribery “leverage”: In recent days, Landrieu has sounded more and more open to voting for Reid’s measure. She told reporters earlier in the week that she was leaning against the vote, but shifted to neutral on Thursday and earlier Friday. By Friday night, with a stack of health care briefing papers under her arm, Landrieu said was leaning in favor of supporting the procedural motion. She acknowledged that she had fought for changes to the bill to help people in her state. Reid included an extra $100 million in Medicaid funding for…

• Just Crazy When You Think About It

  John Cole

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:02 pm

  I’m sitting here watching Rachel Ray make a quick Thanksgiving dinner that working moms and dads can easily whip up in no time, with gravy, and apple pie, and all sorts of things, and all I can think is “I can’t believe they tried to turn her into a symbol of pro-Jihadi anti-Americanism.” It really was just crazy, and after reading @tcot on twitter today, and reading my usual wingnut blogs while also stopping on the Bill O’Reilly show while channel surfing and watching him interview Glenn Beck about buying gold, and I realize they have just gotten worse since the…

• Waste Not, Want Not

  John Cole

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pm

  Read this: In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges. But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people. The projects run…

• 
  Oliver Willis

• What Could Go Wrong?

  owillis@gmail.com (Oliver Willis)

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:13 am

  The sort of headline that as a kid I expected in the 21st century: “Europe: Proton beams circulate in Big Bang machine ” 1. We have a “big bang machine” 2. It’s circulating “beams” of stuff. 3. PROTON beams. 4. A big. Bang. Machine. And yet, no flying cars, no food replicators, and no hoverboards. Still. Also, this:

• White House Snarks On GOP Whining About Health Care Bill Page Length

  owillis@gmail.com (Oliver Willis)

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:08 am

  Loving it. Since some opponents of reform seem too obsessed with the length of the Senate health insurance reform bill to even bother looking at what’s in it for American families, we thought we’d make it a little easier for them to find some key of provisions they’re working so hard to kill: * On page 78 you’ll learn that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. * On page 17, it makes preventive care completely free, with no cost-sharing. (This might be of particular interest to those who have chosen to seize on…

• Mussolini’s Brain Stolen, Put Up For Sale On Ebay

  owillis@gmail.com (Oliver Willis)

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:46 am

  Link Alessandra Mussolini, a former showgirl turned MP, said she immediately informed the police when she found out. The listing, on auction site Ebay, reportedly showed images of a wooden container and ampoules of blood. Ebay, which does not allow the sale of human matter on its site, said that the listing was removed within hours. The initial price requested for the material was 15,000 euros ($22,000; £13,000).

• Dick Lugar Wife Charged With DUI, Hit & Run

  owillis@gmail.com (Oliver Willis)

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:46 pm

  Link Charlene S. Lugar, 77, was stopped shortly after 6:30 p.m. by an officer who noticed smoke coming from her car and damage to the front end of the car as she drove on Old Dominion Drive, Officer Bud Walker said. The officer pulled her over near Dominion Reserve Drive, ‘developed probable cause that she was intoxicated’ and arrested her. He did not release her alleged blood-alcohol content.

• “Climategate” Emails Are Latest Conservative Misfire

  owillis@gmail.com (Oliver Willis)

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:06 pm

  I am totally shocked that gambling is going on here.

• 
  The Moderate Voice

• “Michele Bachmann:Going Crazy”

  DENNIS SANDERS

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:27 pm

  City Pages, an alternative weekly here in Minnesota has done a write-up about Michele Bachmann, who represents the Sixth District. Many people already know her from her rants on Fox News and other national media outlets, but the City Pages story starts from the beginning, when she unseated a moderate Republican State Senator to her time in St. Paul when she showed the same crazy behavior. I think the article is a fair represntation of Bachmann, though the writer’s characterization of the Sixth District, which stretches from the state’s Eastern border across the northern suburbs of…

• Hezbollah’s Man in Iran Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour Has Enemies In Iran

  JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pm

  By most measures, Hezbollah’s Man in Iran Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour should be a hero — yet he now faces some severe critics and staunch enemies there. Why? In a must-read piece on RealClearWorld, Meir Javedanfar, RCW’s Iranian-Israeli Middle East analyst and a regular contributor to RealClearWorld and co-author of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran, says its due to a factor that underscores the complexities of modern Iran: Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour is, after all, the Iranian who established Hezbollah in Lebanon. The first man who tried and…

• The Hidden ‘Arrogance’ Behind Obama’s Royal Bow: Global Geographic Times, China

  WILLIAM KERN

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pm

  What is the significance of President Obama’s habit of bowing to foreign royalty? Continuing with our coverage of China’s reaction to president Obama’s Asia tour, Diguo Zhunjiang for China’s state-controlled Global Geographic Times asserts that while this results in a great loss of face for the United States, he warns his readers not to be lulled into a sense of complacency by Obama’s apparent shows of respect. For China’s Global Geographic Times, Diguo Zhunjiang writes in part: “I regard this as a performance. If we say that his bow upon meeting the…

• Here Is Why Chris Matthews Drives Me CRAZY

  KATHY KATTENBURG

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm

  It’s not his opinions or the fact he’s a boot-licker. It’s not his sexism or that he switches positions depending on who looks like the winner at the moment. THIS is why Chris Matthews drives me crazy. (I wanted to embed the video, but I couldn’t.) I mean, what is the name of that film technique where they “twin” a person? You know, like in The Patty Duke Show, or The Parent Trap? Why doesn’t Matthews do that and just interview himself about this new book? Why waste the actual author’s time?

• “Is Sarah Palin Qualified To Be President?”

  KATHY KATTENBURG

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:25 pm

  Chris Matthews just put that question to Judd Gregg on Hardball. Gregg’s answer: Of course she is. She’s been governor of a large state. She’s run for vice-president. Of  course Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.

• 
  AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

• Saturday Morning Open Thread

  Chris in Paris

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am

  By now, Joe is soaking up the wonderful South African sunshine. Lucky guy and well deserved. John is wrapping up a conference in Barcelona which has pathetic internet connections, so it's going to be a bit light this weekend. With Thanksgiving coming up, everyone is probably preparing for the big day. Travel this year or stay at home? We're hoping to do Thanksgiving next weekend including a French Thanksgiving by a cousin. I don't really know what that means yet myself but it should be fun and a unique experience.Start threading...

• The Strokes

  Chris in Paris

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:45 am

  There's a reason why The Strokes were at the top of the NME Top 50 list.

• No pumpkin for pumpkin pie?

  Chris in Paris

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:29 am

  Noooooooo! If you can find a fresh pumpkin, it's amazingly easy to prepare it for pie filling and it will taste better than the can. If anyone has any good recipes or links online, drop them in the comments. Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.Nestle -- which sells nearly all the canned pumpkin in the U.S. -- says poor weather hurt its harvest, creating a potential shortage of its Libby's pumpkin pie products through the holidays.The company said heavy rains made it nearly impossible to pick its pumpkins during this year's harvest. The longer the pumpkins sit in the muddy…

• Juvenile coelacanth filmed for first time

  Chris in Paris

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:28 pm

  It wasn't long ago that people thought this fish had been extinct for 80 million years. The fish is living in Indonesian waters and it's not alone. What a cool discovery.

• Greetings from Barcelona

  John Aravosis (DC)

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pm

  This picture is much better blown up, but still, I like it - it was the view from the conference room where we had my panel discussion today about the blogs and their influence, and it's got a bit of a futureworld meets old Europe - which is very much Barcelona, and this conference (Personal Democracy Forum - Europe). It was an interesting panel with Mick Fealty, a very interesting Irish blogger, Nicolas Vanbremeersch, who was one of the top bloggers in France, but moved on to create his own Internet consulting business, and another blogger Heidi Nordby Lunde. I'm exhausted, it's 1240am and I…

• 
  RealClearPolitics - Homepage

• A Budget-Buster in the Making

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:49 am

  David Broder, Washington PostIt's simply not true that America is ambivalent about everything when it comes to the Obama health plan.The day after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave its qualified blessing to the version of health reform produced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Quinnipiac University poll of a national cross section of voters reported its latest results.This poll may not be as famous as some others, but I know the care and professionalism of the people who run it, and one question was particularly interesting to me.It read: "President Obama has pledged…

• Mammogram Advisory Becomes Big Issue

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:44 am

  Shear & Eggen, Washington PostAs a health reform bill endorsed by President Obama marches toward its first Senate floor vote on Saturday, his opponents stepped up efforts to define the legislation as big-government ambition run amok that will interfere with intimate medical decisions and threaten the pocketbooks of average taxpayers. A dozen Republican senators spent Friday in an orchestrated, hours-long session of floor speeches, assailing the health-care bill as a vehicle to higher taxes, Medicare cuts and premium increases. Meanwhile, the surprise recommendation this week by a…

• Scientific Scandal Rocks Climate Change Promoters

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:42 am

  Clarice Feldman, AT

• Going Green Matters More Than Ever

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:40 am

  Andrew Winston, Huffington Post

• Iran's Dangerous Game Enters Next Round

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:37 am

  Tony Karon, Time

• 
  Latest Politics Videos Sifted at VideoSift.com

• America Needs the 8/29 Investigation

  dotdude (http://dotdude.videosift.com)

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:34 am

  (11 votes - 2 comments - 400 views)Uploader description: Watch two poignant viewpoints on why the 8/29 Investigation is needed.

• UCLA students protest an increase in tuition of 32%

  reiwan (http://politics.videosift.com/member/reiwan)

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:04 pm

  (12 votes - 3 comments - 274 views)UCLA students protest an increase in tuition fees by 32%. Some reports saying 14 students were arrested, while 1 was tasered. A little more on the protest can be read here. http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/ucla_protest_results_in_arrests_1118200950378732/ Why the increase? http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/why-uc-has-to-raise-tuition-102610.aspx

• Eddie Izzard - Evolution vs. Intelligent Design (2009)

  Nonbrainwashed (http://politics.videosift.com/member/Nonbrainwashed)

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pm

  (27 votes - 2 comments - 754 views)From the Eddie Izzard Stripped Live DVD.

• Glen Beck feels like a little girl

  Tyrsis (http://politics.videosift.com/member/Tyrsis)

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am

  (14 votes - 4 comments - 491 views)Just when I thought Glen Beck was ridiculous enough, he spouts off this little analogy that is about as classy as they come. He seems to sink lower daily.

• TYT: Sarah Palin is still stupid

  Almanildo (http://politics.videosift.com/member/Almanildo)

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  (24 votes - 9 comments - 405 views)Sarah Palin spews forth incoherent talking points in an interview with Barbara Walters.

• 
  Politics Blogs on Blogged

• Good To Know: Sarah Palin Believes In Racial Profiling, Glenn Beck

  Racialicious Sarah Palin believes that political correctness is for fools and racial profiling is the way to stop violence. Thing is, if (as she tells Sean Hannity) “liberals’ heads explode” over her comments, it’ll be due to exposure to utter stupidity...

• Rev. Jesse Jackson Recognizes Principled Leadership of Cong. Artur Davis in the Healthcare Debate

  Left in Alabama Just over 24 hours ago Rev. Jesse Jackson lambasted Artur Davis with "you can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man," but he sees things a bit differently tonight. Here is Rev. Jesse Jackson's most recent statement...

• The Senate HCR Abortion Provision

  Daily Kos The extreme abortion language included in the House bill has been left out of the Senate bill, in favor of a provision that more closely tracks with the Capps amendment that was originally included in the House bill, only to be replaced by the Stupak Coathanger amendment, as well as used for the original Senate Finance committee language. The current Senate bill has added a provision stating that the HHS Secretary must ensure that no federal funds are used for abortion...

• NC: Rep. Virginia Foxx claims GOP led on civil rights in the 60s

  Pam's House Blend Ah, it's pathetically ignorant, perpetually re-elected NC U.S. Congresscritter Virginia Foxx opening her trap again to contribute batsh*ttery to the public discourse and historical record with the ludicrous claim on the House floor that the Repub...

• Fed Beaten: Bill To Audit Federal Reserve Passes Key Hurdle

  The Huffington Post In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with an overwhelming and bipartisan 43-26 vote on Thursday afternoon despite harried last-minu...

• 
  Mike's Washington Watch

• State of the Nation

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Crossing the 10% threshold, unemployment for the month of October reached 10.2%. This is the highest level of unemployment since April 1983. 190,000 jobs were cut during the month. Unemployment may have actually reached 20%, when taking into account people who have stopped looking for jobs and those who are underemployed as a result of significant cuts in their total compensation. The October NBC/WSJ survey paints a portrait of how Americans feel early in the 4th quarter of 2009. 52% - country off on the wrong track 63% - the level of unemployment has not hit bottom 58% - there is still a…

• Who We Are

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am

  The dominant ideological group in the United States, based on self- identification, is conservatives. 40% of respondents identify themselves that way. Since 1992 there were two other years, 2003 and 2004, when self-described conservatives were the dominant ideological group. For most of that period, "moderates" were marginally at the top of the heap. Today, 36% describe themselves that way. Liberals have trailed since at least 1992. The high points for liberals were in 2007 and 2008 when 22% of Americans described themselves in that way. [Gallup] In the October NBC/WSJ survey, 30% described…

• 2009 Elections

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:57 am

  The 2009 elections can be read as a reflection of the continuing discontent among Americans. 85% or more of the voters in New Jersey and Virginia are "very worried" about the economy for the coming year. The elections can also be read as a reflection of a Democratic gubernatorial incumbent (New Jersey) who had a very poor job approval rating for his performance in office, and a Democratic candidate for Governor (Virginia) who simply didn't have it. The elections can also be read as older Americans caring more than younger Americans about making the effort to get out and vote, and as…

• President Obama

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am

  President Obama's overall job performance numbers have been relatively constant over the last several months. In addition to the surveys below, Gallup is showing 50/41% approval and CNN/OR is at 54.45%. NBC/WSJ NYT/CBS WP/ABC Obama overall job approval February 60/26% 62/15% 68/25% April 61/30% 66/24% 69/26% June 56/34% 63/26% 65/31% July 53/40% 58/37% August 51/40% 57/40% September 51/41% 56/33% 54/43% October 51/42% 57/40% When matched against the approval ratings of November of the first year of their initial terms in office, Obama now ranks 8th. Only Clinton had numbers lower than his.

• Healthcare: Could Christmas Eve Come and Go Without Completion of Healthcare?

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:55 am

  As this is being written on November 5th, the U.S. House is planning to vote on its version of healthcare reform legislation on Saturday, November 7th. The Senate is not yet ready to bring its bill to the floor, but is likely to do so in the next week. Negotiations among the various factions within the Democratic caucus are continuing. It is most likely that by the time of the Christmas break, both houses will have passed their versions of the bill. The conference will then take place after the 1st of the year, with a goal of having the legislation enacted before the President gives his State…

• 
  Democratic Strategist

• Twitter

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:19 pm

  The Democratic Strategist finally has a Twitter feed, and you should follow us @DemStrategist. Most of what you'll find are links to stories published on the Daily Strategist, but over time, this will become a place where we occasionally announce...

• Health Care Reform As Platform for the Future

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pm

  In Friday's HuffPo, TDS contributor Mike Lux takes a step back to put the battle for health care reform into the big picture -- how it enables momentum in support of the broader struggle for a more progressive agenda. As...

• TDS Co-Editor William Galston Calls for National Infrastructure Bank

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:08 am

  In his post, "One Way to Rebuild America" at The New Republic, TDS-Co-Editor William Galston makes a persuasive case for "a national infrastructure bank,' to restore America's deteriorating network of roads, bridges, sewers, mass transit systems and other essentail public...

• Paranoia on the Upswing

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm

  In October, Mother Jones reported on the creation of a popular, massive multiplayer game, in which conservatives launch a revolution in reaction to an attempt by the Obama government to merge the United States with Mexico and Canada to form...

• Reid's Compromise Bill: The Timetable

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:36 am

  A number of political commentators have expressed concern about the timetable for implementing health care reforms, particularly as it relates to Democratic prospects in the upcoming midterm elections. So far, Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown has the best summary of the...

• 
  The Washington Note

• Who Will deliver the Palestinian State?

  Steve Clemons

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

  The is a guest note by Fadi Elsalameen, publisher of the Palestine Note. For the past several years Palestine Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's name on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza has become synonymous with the words credibility, honesty, and transparency. His hard work on building and reforming Palestinian institutions has paid off: Palestinians see him as a serious leader that can deliver to his people with or without the Israelis. He has raised the bar of leadership so high that officials in the Fatah movement are feeling extremely uncomfortable and challenged. A senior Fatah leader…

• What Does Europe Think of Ergenekon?

  Ben Katcher

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:47 am

  Europe is correct to be skeptical of Turkey's European Union accession prospects - but Brussels should be wary not because Turkey is not "part of Europe," but because its democracy remains fragile and its liberalism incomplete. The most obvious evidence of Turkey's uneven progress is the ongoing Ergenekon investigation that continues to roil the country. The criminal case has led to the arrests of 194 individuals suspected of being members of Turkey's derin devlet (Deep State) - a murky, extra-legal organization that is suspected of having close ties to the military and the bureaucracy. At…

• LIVE STREAM: Ad Melkert on the Future of Iraq

  Andrew Lebovich

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am

  With all of the talk and controversy about the war in Afghanistan in the past months, it has been easy for many to forget that despite the reduction in violence brought about partly by the 2007 troop surge, Iraq remains troubled. Violence is on the rise again, and last month's deadly bombings showed the continued threat that insurgent groups pose to the Iraq's government and people. Moreover, unresolved political questions continue to inhibit Iraq's transition toward stability and government accountability. The passage of a long-awaited election law Sunday elicited relief from many in the…

• Afghan Endgame: WNYC's Brian Lehrer & Steve Clemons

  Steve Clemons

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:12 pm

  This is an audio clip of an extensive discussion with Brian Lehrer on WNYC National Public Radio today about Barack Obama's options in Afghanistan. I am pleased and applaud President Obama for requiring his advisers to come to him with plans including serious "exit strategies." Lehrer properly noted that I am a skeptic of a surge of forces into Afghanistan now and lined up some callers who were proponents of committing greater resources toward the problem. I thought that this was an excellent exchange -- and covered the terrain well. Brian Lehrer knows how to expertly peel back the onion skin…

• Interview with former UK Ambassador to US Christopher Meyer on the Afghanistan Debacle and 500 Years of British Foreign Policy Success

  Steve Clemons

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:36 pm

  I interviewed former UK Ambassador to the United States Sir Christopher Meyer on his new book Getting Our Way: Five Hundred Years Of International Diplomacy. I have begun the book -- and it's a terrific review of five centuries of the world's big moments and how competitive statecraft in very difficult circumstances turned out. Here is a review from The Guardian. Meyer has important insights into Afghanistan, stating that the "penny is dropping in London that the democracy project in Afghanistan is a fool's errand." He is increasingly of the view that the entire Afghanistan exercise is a…

• 
  Calitics - Front Page

• November 20 Open Thread

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  Links for your weekend: ? Equality California got ad time donated during the Miss California pageant. This is the ad they will be airing. The closing line: "Give Now." Sounds about right for EQCA. ? Yesterday Carly Fiorina got the endorsement of the very influential OK Sen. Jim Inhofe. Today, Meg Whitman gets the endorsement of former Lt. Gov. Ed Reinecke. Don't recall that name? That's because he resigned office 40 years ago in disgrace over some Watergate related corruption issues. ? San Jacinto City Councilman James Ayres lost an Assembly GOP primary, and now he's about to lose more than…

• Whitman's Media Relations Plan: Hope the Newspapers Fail

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:16 pm

  This has got to be one of the all-time great quotes. When asked about how she plans on dealing with the press, this was Meg Whitman's response: "Some of these newspapers, as you know better than I, will not be around in the near term." Her plan is to wait for the newspapers to collapse? Really? While the newspapers aren't in great shape, expecting them to fail between now and next November seems a bit optimistic (or pessimistic for most sane humans). I'm sure all the reporters, and staff of the newspapers will appreciate her anticipation of their job losses. But hey, she's got a billion or so…

• Anthony Adams' Head Saved From Pike

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm

  Back in the February budget battle, notorious right-wing SoCal talk show hosts John and Ken put the heads of Republican legislators who voted for the tax increases on sticks as a threat of grassroots wingnut revolt. Their primary enemy became GOP Assemblymember Anthony Adams (AD-59), who they targeted with a recall effort, gathering and submitting signatures to put a recall on the ballot. It was to be the biggest demonstration yet of the power the KFI duo have over California politics - and the Republican Party. Except they failed. We learned today that the recall effort will fall 11,000…

• Some Seriously Messed Up Framing

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pm

  The AP has a story about the fact that Arnold's Prop 49 is breaking a hole in the budget.  Arnold, for his part, is pretty adamant that he won't gut it. Because, you know, it's part of his legacy. I guess it's only okay to mess up Darrell Steinberg's legacy by repealing the mental health measure. The problem here is still one of framing.  Solutions now seem to be completely limited to cuts, those who support additional revenue appear to have completely lost: With California facing another mammoth budget deficit, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst says voters should…

• 12.5%

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am

  California's unemployment rate continues to rise, reaching 12.5% in October. However, the state may have actually added jobs for the first time in over a year and a half: Still, not all signs are negative. The state gained 25,700 jobs in October, reversing a trend that's seen California lose 687,700 jobs over the year. It is the first time the state has added jobs since April 2008. There's some dispute about that number. According to John Myers at KQED Capitol Notes, it's numbers from state agencies that show growth, whereas federal numbers show a further decline. Even if the state really had…

• 
  Jeffrey Goldberg

• Sarah Palin and the Rapture

  Jeffrey Goldberg

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:23 am

  Ever curious about the eschatological implications of that Sarah Palin quote from her interview with Barbara Walters -- the one in which she said she believes that "more and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead" -- I called the executive director of the Pre-Trib Research Center at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., Dr. Thomas Ice. The Pre-Trib Center is one of the preeminent evangelical institutions in this country arguing for literal Bible prophecy, and especially for pre-millenial dispensationalism, a complicated belief system that concerns…

• Yet Another Chilean Zionist Rap Containing the Word "Manichaean"

  Jeffrey Goldberg

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am

  h/t Jennie Rothenberg Gritz:

• Mocking Islam May Become Illegal

  Tali Yahalom

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

  The AP reports:Four years after cartoons of the prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery -- essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that Algeria and Pakistan have taken the lead in lobbying to eventually bring the proposal to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly. If ratified in countries that enshrine freedom of expression as a…

• Are American Muslims Really Happy Here?

  Jeffrey Goldberg

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:05 pm

  Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson:The conventional wisdom is that unlike Europe's discontented Muslims, America's Muslims are prosperous and happy, having benefited from the welcoming embrace of our "melting pot" nation. This is basically a complacent fiction. According to a Gallup poll released in March 2009, while Muslim integration in the United States has been more successful than in Europe, Muslims remain less civically engaged in American society and less inclined to view their social position positively than any other religious group.

• UFOs or Middle East Peace: Which One is More Likely?

  Tali Yahalom

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:37 pm

  The answer is obvious, no? At least according to participants of a recent poll conducted by Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes:

• 
  Weekly Standard Blog

• Happy Hour Links

  John McCormack

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm

  Mark Hemingway: Won't somebody think of the trustafarians? Worse than waterboarding: Iraqi detainees use Favre to taunt Wisconsin soldiers. Jay Cost: Of course 60 Democratic senators will vote yes on Saturday night's motion to proceed to debate on the health care bill. Wesley Smith: Senate health care bill is assisted suicide friendly. Sarah Palin is concerned that panels made up of health care bureaucrats recommend scaling back on mammograms and cervical cancer screenings. Obama campaign calls Palin "dangerous" in fundraising letter. Jim Geraghty: Fox finds no significant wrongdoing in…

• Obama Awarded a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do

  Michael Goldfarb

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

  Andrew Malcolm wrote this up yesterday, news from the last stop of Obama's Asia trip: Even President Obama himself during his just-concluded trip to Asia admitted that he was surprised to receive the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year without actually producing any peace. In fact, the rookie American president ordered his own troop surge, boosting U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan to 68,000. Now, the Democrat may be preparing to send more. And a Gallup Poll showed 61% of Americans didn't think he deserved the prize either. Anyway, there he was in Seoul, the last stop of his journey. And…

• WashTimes: DOJ has Conflicts of Interest on Detainees

  Mary Katharine Ham

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm

  Sen. Chuck Grassley asked Attorney General Eric Holder in a hearing Wednesday for a list of the employees at Dept. of Justice who might have to recuse themselves due to conflicts of interest over detainees. Some DOJ employees and their former firms represented and defended detainees in the past, raising questions about how DOJ might deal with their cases in the future. Holder was cagey, promising only to "consider the request" despite Grassley's repeated requests. Today, the Washington Times reveals some of the recusals already made: The Obama Justice Department is having problems prosecuting…

• Re: NORAD Looks Inward

  Stuart Koehl

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm

  John Noonan is correct in stating that NORAD will be sorely stretched by the requirement to stand alerts against incursions by Russian bombers and reconnaissance aircraft (even if these pose only a minimal objective threat, air sovereignty must be maintained). He overlooked, I think, the implications of long range Su-30 fighter/attack aircraft being acquired by Venezuela, which could pose a threat to Florida and the Gulf Coast, further increasing stress on NORAD. At the present moment, it does not appear that the administration will reverse its decision to terminate the FA-22 Raptor at just…

• "Productive Solutions"

  Michael Goldfarb

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:17 pm

  Politico reporters will give right-wingers the kind of fair treatment that they can get almost nowhere else, but in this piece on McCain's shift on cap and trade includes a line that just drips with bias. Reporter Lisa Lerer, wrongly in my opinion, attributes McCain's shift on cap and trade to a changeover in staff -- in particular the departure of Mark Salter, who was always pretty green for a Republican. Lerer writes, The staff that remains, say former aides, lacks the institutional history on the issue and the ability to steer McCain toward productive solutions. Even if former aides said…

• 
  JoeTrippi.com

• Twitter releases geolocation API, possiblities for use abound

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:27 pm

  With the activation of the long-awaited Geolocation API yesterday, Twitter has opened up the possibilities for developers. Now any location based dataset can be tied to a new dataset of tweets to provide information, updates, or reminders on the fly. RedWriteWeb discusses the development and provides some possible use cases: “Party Over Here” Bot: Automated Geo-Replies Want to know when you’re near a certain type of public event, great wine shops or deals at Macy’s? How about when friends, close friends or friends-of-friends are near? It’s not hard to imagine a…

• Flip Cam to make citizen video journalism even quicker

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:24 am

  In an exciting development for decentralized citizen journalism, the Flip video camera from Cisco will include wi-fi starting in early 2010. Wireless internet access will now enable instantaneous video sharing via the web. While many smart phones already offer the ability to record video and directly upload to YouTube or Facebook, the Flip cam will offer dedicated hardware for the task. Mashable’s Ben Parr provides more insight: The next-generation Flip MinoHD, due in the first half of 2010, includes double the memory, a larger screen, and direct Facebook uploads. Now according to…

• Webcast from the White House: State Department engages on Darfur

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

  In an exciting moment for public engagement last week, the State Department webcast live on their Facebook page a meeting between Special Envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, the Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council, Samantha Power, and representatives from Save Darfur and STAND, the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network. This was part of a new series from the White House called Ask U.S., a project to engage the advocacy community and answer questions on U.S. Sudan policy. The video was streamed live on the State Department Facebook…

• FCC urged to review use of digital TV airwaves

  admin

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:38 pm

  In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the chief executives of the Consumer Electronics Association and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association urged the FCC to review how digital TV airwaves are being used as directed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This could lead to a reapportioning of digital airwaves to accommodate growing use of mobile broadband. The L.A. Times has more: According to the CEA-CTIA letter: “This spectrum is uniquely suited for mobile broadband applications, devices and services –it has highly favorable propagation characteristics…

• Obama condemns internet censorship in visit to China

  admin

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am

  In a town hall style meeting on Sunday in Beijing, President Obama expressed his opinion regarding Chinese restrictions on internet access. The Associated Press reports: It was a delicately balanced message and Obama couched his admonitions with words calling for cooperation, heavy with praise and American humility. “I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable,” Obama told students during his first-ever trip to China. “They can begin to think…

• 
  James Fallows

• Manufactured failure #2: the press, Obama, Asia

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am

  It's not just me. Two colleagues with different perspectives -- from each other's, and sometimes from my own -- marvel at how badly the mainstream American press distorted the picture of what happened during Barack Obama's just-ended tour of Asia. First, Howard French -- long of the NYT, now of the Columbia Journalism School, friend of mine in both Tokyo and Shanghai. He has a new online Q-and-A with the Columbia Journalism Review, here, in which he says that the traveling press covered Obama's meetings with Asian officials as if this were a bunch of stops in a presidential campaign tour, and…

• Manufactured failure: press coverage of Obama in Asia

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:52 pm

  I have what I think is some interesting new info coming on this front over the weekend; stay tuned, starting Saturday afternoon. For the moment, two more installments in my argument, previously here and here,  that Barack Obama's recent swing through Asia was a relative success, and certainly nothing like the disaster that most U.S. coverage implied. Installment one: me talking with Bob Garfield of NPR's On The Media just now, about why American fantasies of an omnipotent, rising China may have distorted American press reaction to what Obama said and did.Installment two: the…

• RIP, D-N-I.net (updated)

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:49 am

  After an outstanding ten-and-a-half year run, the website "Defense and the National Interest," better known as d-n-i.net, will close down next Monday, November 23. Chet Richards, who with his wife Ginger has run the site through that time, says that for various logistical and practical reasons he is ready to move on to day-job concerns.Chet (shown here), a retired Air Force colonel and math PhD, has been one of the most committed and effective proponents of the ideas of combat developed in the 1970s and 1980s by another retired Air Force colonel, the late John Boyd -- background here and…

• Having complained about Google Checkout...

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

  ... because of its opaqueness in certain circumstances (and more to say when next I am at a computer), let me mention a different Google project notable for its transparency. That is the "Chromium OS" -- a new operating system optimized for "netbooks," which was announced yesterday as an open-source development project. Google has made the source code available free, along with some design documents and results of early user testing. First video below is the hour-plus announcement session. At the bottom is a three-minute product intro.  The idea behind netbooks, of course, is that…

• About my frozen Google account

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:37 pm

  Well, at least I know what the problem was. It was China's fault! When I was living in Beijing early this year, I tried to reserve a domain name and pay for it using the Google Checkout system. Google's fraud-detection system flagged the transaction as likely fraudulent. It then canceled the deal and put a hold on my account. This happened to me all the time in China. Maybe once a week my wife or I would find that our Visa or Master Card account had been frozen, because any online purchase we tried to make from a China-based Internet connection would trigger all the fraud detectors. Then we…

• 
  Megan McArdle

• Oprah Winfrey Ending the Most Successful Television Show Ever

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:04 am

  Oprah Winfrey has announced that she is ending her show after its 25th season.  You can see why she's doing it:  one of the wealthiest people in America, with $2.6 billion to her name, Ms. Winfrey hardly needs to keep showing up for a job that must be getting a little repetitive by now.  Moreover, she still has a massive media empire with properties like O Magazine to keep the money rolling in.  And with the termination of her show, she'll be launching her very own cable network, OWN.Of course, it remains to be seen whether her empire will remain intact after she leaves…

• AppleCare: No Smokers Need Apply

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

  Allegedly, Apple is declining to repair Macs owned by smokers on the ground that secondhand smoke is dangerous.  This a gross misunderstanding of the science--theoretically, tobacco tar could be hazardous if applied to your skin, but you'd have to really slather it on, leave it there for an extended period, and reapply fairly frequently.  But it also seems like a gross misunderstanding of who makes up their customer base on the East Coast.

• Is Fox a Real News Operation?

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:16 am

  Fox News seems to have a real problem with cutting old footage into new stories.  The liberal theory is that this is some sort of concerted conspiracy to imply that 80 million Americans turn out for every Tea Party or Sarah Palin appearance. The conservative line is that they were simply trying to punch up an otherwise dull segment, and/or somehow ran out of footage of the actual event.  The latter story makes marginally more sense to me, but only because I cannot imagine that anyone at Fox News--indeed, anyone with a pulse--is stupid enough to imagine that a few shots of excess…

• Mental Health Break

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am

  The Real Problem with vampires.

• The Other CBO Health Care Report

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:19 am

  Shortly after it posted its analysis of the Senate health care bill, the CBO put up a letter to Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) analyzing the House's other health care bill:  the $200+ billion dollar "fix" (aka repeal) of the Sustainable Growth Rate.  For those of you who haven't been following along at home, the Sustainable Growth Rate was a cost-cutting measure enacted as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.  Not to bore you with unnecessary details, it tied the growth in physician reimbursement payments to GDP growth.  This worked for a few years, because we had…

• 
  The American Scene

• Hot Streak at BHTV

  Conor Friedersdorf

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

  Peter and I recorded a Bloggingheads episode today — I’ll post when it goes live — but meanwhile there are a bunch of good diavlogs up on that site: a fascinating discussion about memory in a digital age; Andrew Bacevich and David Frum grappling with the best response to a dangerous world; Megan McArdle and Dayo Olopade arguing about many topics, including whether abortion is health care or not; and many more. Though I no longer do work for that site, I am hopeful they’ll have great success, and proud to have been associated with it.

• PJTV Does Gitmo

  Conor Friedersdorf

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm

  I’ve had mixed feelings about Pajamas TV since it began. Roger Simon is a real talent, Andrew Klavan often has intelligent points to make, and Glenn Reynolds, a pioneer of the blogosphere, alerts me to a good link I wouldn’t have otherwise seen almost every time that I read his blog. The guy who interviewed me when I appeared on the site was very nice. Instapundit also regularly sends traffic to Megan McArdle, Mickey Kaus, and Radley Balko, so Professor Reynolds and I obviously have overlapping tastes in journalism. But I am dismayed at some of the content that the folks who run…

• Douthatblog is back

  Peter Suderman

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:37 am

  … like a heart attack.

• Continetti on Palin

  Reihan Salam

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:53 pm

  My friend Matt Continetti — one of the smartest journalists I know — has written a smart and thoughtful comment for the Wall Street Journal on the long, difficult road ahead for Sarah Palin if she intends to become a serious presidential contender. Though I don’t agree with Matt in every detail, his basic argument, as I understand it, is: (1) Palin is polarizing and voters consider her underqualified for national office. (2) She needs to reintroduce herself to the public as a market-friendly populist who reaches out to the center from a solid conservative base. (3) High…

• The Biggest, The Dumbest, The Blockbusteriest

  Peter Suderman

  14 Nov 2009 | 12:52 am

  My quick take on 2012 is up at Reason. Here’s a sample: Not content merely to be another Big, Dumb Blockbuster, it aims for something greater: to be the Biggest, the Dumbest, the Blockbusteriest. And with its never-ending parade of glorious, ludicrous, and utterly improbable catastrophes, it more or less succeeds. 2012 is the sort of movie so aggressively hyperbolic and devoutly over-the-top that it makes traditional descriptive labels obsolete and thus requires the invention of whole new words. My suggestions? How about catastrophaganza—the subgenre to which 2012 (and most of…

• 
  Cafferty File

• Faith in govt. to do something about soaring debt?

  How much faith do you have the government will do anything meaningful about the soaring national debt? FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty The national debt has hit a record high of $12 trillion - which translates to about $40,000 for every person in this country. And what's particularly troubling is the rate at which it continues to grow... [...]

• Taxing Botox, liposuction to pay for health care reform?

  Senate Democrats are proposing a 5% excise tax on elective cosmetic procedures. FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty Something called "Botax" might help pay for health care reform. The name derives from a tax on Botox... which in the case of some Hollywood types could raise millions. Senate Democrats are proposing a 5% excise tax on elective cosmetic procedures... [...]

• Should Rudy Giuliani pursue a career in national politics?

  Rudy Giuliani may have his eye on becoming the next U.S. Senator from New York. FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty Rudy Giuliani may have his eye on becoming the next U.S. Senator from New York. The Daily News reports that the former New York mayor is strongly considering a run next year for Hillary Clinton's old Senate seat [...]

• Could authorities have prevented the Fort Hood shootings?

  (PHOTO CREDITS: Getty Images)   FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty Most Americans think that authorities could have prevented the massacre at Fort Hood... and when the politicians sniff this kind of sentiment, they can't wait to rush into hearings. A new CNN-Opinion Research Corporation Poll shows 64 percent of those surveyed say law enforcement or the military should have [...]

• Are you losing interest in health care debate?

  Democratic Senators introduce their 2,074 page health care reform bill. FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty With the Senate health care bill weighing in at 2,074 pages... this means we now have more than 4,000 pages of proposed health care legislation. 4,000. One Republican senator is threatening to read the whole bill on the Senate floor... that could take up [...]

• 
  The BoBo Files

• Friday Funnies – and – I met The Tampa Pirate

  Hi All - first - before we get to the funny stuff - just wanted to let everyone know that I met The Tampa Pirate this evening.  What a great guy he is.  I recruited him as a member of our leadership and state development committee for The American Conservative ...

• Now is the time to get your gold!

  This is one of those ads I really don't mind bringing to you guys since I'm also a customer.  In case you haven't been paying attention, gold has reached an all-time high.  I was fortunate enough to get in to the market three years ago when the price was $465/oz.  ...

• Senate Health Care Bill will lead to Tax Revolt

  2074 Pages!  Holy freakin' hell people!  That bill is even bigger than the damned House version.  Here is just a short list of the taxes that are in this bill - hmm...I thought Obama promised no taxes on the middle-class? 5% Tax on Cosmetic Surgery 40% Tax on "Cadillac Plans" - If ...

• 
  Obsidian Wings

• When Hawks Collide

  Eric Martin

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

  by Eric Martin Although it won't pass, unfortunately, this is the right idea: Senior House Democrats have introduced legislation that would impose a surtax beginning in 2011 to cover the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...] “For the last year, as we’ve struggled to pass health care reform, we’ve been told that we have to pay for the bill — and the cost over the next decade will be about a trillion dollars,” the three lawmakers said in a joint statement. “Now the president is being asked to consider an enlarged counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, which…

• Fear is the Mind-Killer

  Eric Martin

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:10 am

  by Eric Martin Steven Simon, whose work I admire greatly, discusses the negative reaction to the decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in a civilian court.  After summarily dispensing with the more inane critiques of Obama's decision, Simon takes on the notion that a trial could serve as a platform for KSM to propagandize effectively.  His analysis dovetails neatly with my prior post on the subject: Which brings us to the idea that allowing Mr. Mohammed to take the stand will give him a soapbox. The truth is, if the trial provides a propaganda platform for anybody, it will be for our…

• This Constitution Kills Fascists

  Eric Martin

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pm

  by Eric Martin Johann Hari has a fascinating piece in The Independentthat recounts his interviews with several British nationals that have made the journey from active participantsin jihadi/terrorist causes and back.  Hari's quest to find out how and why certain people join terrorist groups, or espouse and propagate radical Islamist ideology, had been frustrated by the reticence and dissembling of persons active in those circles.  His entreaties were met more with propaganda than introspection or insight.   More recently, a group of increasingly vocal…

• My first Newsweek story: Senate May Thwart Stupak

  Lindsay Beyerstein

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:39 am

  By Lindsay BeyersteinMy first Newsweek story, on the Stupak Amendment, the senate bill, and what's next in the fight over abortion access under health reform. National abortion-rights advocacy groups were outraged when the House passed the Stupak amendment to the health-care bill. The amendment—named for its sponsor, Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak—would bar patients who receive government affordability credits from buying health insurance that covers elective abortions, even if they pay for the abortion component with their own money. It seemed as if the reproductive-rights…

• In which it is revealed that Mitt Romney is the Queen of Hearts

  von

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:08 am

  by von I suppose that I should say something about Sarah Palin.  I know, I know, she's pretty obscure.  She's not even a one-term govenor.  She's a quitter.  She's a losing VP candidate.  She doesn't have any expertise.  She hasn't really done much.  Kind of a waste of a post. Still, Palin paid someone write a book for her.  And she was on Oprah.  That makes her newsworthy. Right?  And I'm kinda a Republican.  Who, by the bye, initially thought that Senator McCain made a brilliant move in picking her.  (There is a self-damning comment of mine…

• 
  Bill Moyers Journal

• A Tale of Two Quagmires

  Moyers Admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:37 am

  This week on the JOURNAL, Bill Moyers looked back some four decades to his experience as a member of President Lyndon Johnson’s administration. At the time, Johnson made a series of fateful decisions to escalate the war in Vietnam, where eventually over two million American military personnel would serve. Estimates indicate that nearly 60,000 U.S. troops – and more than a million Vietnamese – were killed during the course of the conflict. With an eye on President Obama’s deliberations on whether to deploy more U.S. troops in addition to the 68,000 already in Afghanistan, Moyers…

• Michael Winship: New York's Tough Enough for Terrorist Trials

  Moyers Admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am

  (Photo by Robin Holland) Below is an article by JOURNAL senior writer Michael Winship. We welcome your comments below. "New York’s Tough Enough for Terrorist Trials" By Michael Winship If you want to royally tick off New Yorkers, try telling us what to do. That’s probably why the police stopped trying to enforce the jaywalking laws here years ago (as opposed to Washington, DC, where I once got one too many tickets and was sent to pedestrian school). And that’s why in the weeks after 9/11, my favorite sign was the one that appeared in the windows of Italian-American neighborhoods near…

• Michael Winship: In a Chilly London November, War and Remembrance

  Moyers Admin

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am

  (Photo by Robin Holland) Below is an article by JOURNAL senior writer Michael Winship. We welcome your comments below. "In a Chilly London November, War and Remembrance" By Michael Winship In Great Britain, Remembrance Sunday falls on the second Sunday of November, the one closest to November 11th, the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918. Once, the world called November 11th Armistice Day. Now, here in the States at least, it is Veterans Day. As coincidence and travel itineraries would have it, twice over the last four years I’ve been in London on Remembrance Sunday. This…

• Human Faces Behind the Health Debate

  Moyers Admin

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am

  (Photo by Robin Holland) This week on the JOURNAL, Bill Moyers spoke with acclaimed actress-playwright Anna Deavere Smith about her latest production, LET ME DOWN EASY, in which she recreates the voices of 20 real people grappling with illness and mortality. Smith explained what her production is about: “LET ME DOWN EASY is about grace and kindness in a world that lacks that often, [but] not always. And a winner-takes-all world, where we don't think about the people who are losing. We don't think about the people who are abandoned by jobs or governments or lovers or mothers or fathers.

• A Passion for Poetry

  Moyers Admin

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  This week, the JOURNAL introduced viewers to Poets House in New York City, a space dedicated to celebrating the literary form that has been called “the queen of arts.” At the grand reopening of the facility in a large new space in Manhattan, several writers shared their love of poetry. Lee Briccetti said: “Language is central to our identity as human beings and poetry is central to language. Every culture has a poetry. And I believe that when people in the caves were blowing paint into the imprints of their hands, they were also chanting words to go with that. It goes very, very deep…

• 
  Open Budgets Blog

• Are the lives of people with HIV more valuable than those of children with pneumonia?

  internationalbudget

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  This post was prepared by Jason Lakin of the International Budget Partnership. How should we allocate scarce resources to health sector priorities? Suppose we have a pot of $1000 available to spend on the treatment of two diseases. One disease kills 2000 people per year, and the other 1000 . If it costs $1 to treat 1 person, the pot of money could cover treatment for all of the people suffering from the less prevalent disease, or half of the people suffering from the more prevalent disease. (The cost of treatment is the same; assume, too, that people who are treated recover from both diseases…

• THE EDUCATION MDG: IS MORE BETTER?

  internationalbudget

  8 Oct 2009 | 1:41 am

  This blog post is a shortened  version of a Brief prepared for the IBP by Ruth Carlitz Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have come under fire for being overly ambitious or unfair, they have mobilized resources and helped to build political will to improve the education sector in countries around the world. Now, more than halfway to the MDGs’ target end date, concerns are being voiced that progress toward achieving the goals is off track, particularly in Africa. This has led to calls for increased foreign aid and greater local investment in education and other development…

• How can foreign aid donors help, not hinder, transparent budgeting?

  internationalbudget

  29 Sep 2009 | 3:17 am

  This post was prepared by Porter McConnell of OxfamAmerica. Development aid, used in smart ways, can save lives and help people get themselves out of poverty.  But sixty years of foreign aid have shown that donors cannot fix the problems of poor people by themselves.  Poor people themselves are demanding accountability and performance from their governments, and our aid is most effective when it invests in strengthening this relationship. Oxfam recently released a paper calling for specific reforms that emphasize recipient ownership—making US foreign aid support the efforts of…

• Do school fees block access to education?

  internationalbudget

  15 Sep 2009 | 1:26 am

  A paper recently published by the World Bank and Unicef argues that school fees should be abolished in order for Africa to achieve its enrollment objectives and to stimulate further educational improvements on the continent. Quite ironic after the Bank’s user fee crusade of the 80s and 90s. In the paper Birger Fredriksen argues that “school fees are a key determinant in the growth of enrollment rates and are also important for equity and access considerations, with more vulnerable children often unable to attend or complete primary school.” He also argues that “the…

• How to drive Public Finance Management reforms in poor countries

  internationalbudget

  14 Aug 2009 | 1:11 am

  The PFM Blog recently posted a fascinating Q&A with the IMF’s Richard Allen Apart from a serious faux pas where he refers to the IMF as an ‘honest broker’ that can provide ‘genuinely impartial advice… and its implementation’, he shares some stunning insights that reflect his years of experience in the field First he argues (admits?) that there is no ‘consensus mode’ for sequencing Public Finance Management (PFM) reform. In plain English: there is no recipe for where to start or how to string together such reforms. After a comment by Sanjay…

• 
  Bench Memos on National Review Online

• David Hamilton's Yes to "Allah" and No to "Jesus" -- By: Ed Whelan

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am

  In Newsweek, Dahlia Lithwick contends that Newt Gingrich “was factually true but hopelessly misleading” when he said that David Hamilton, President Obama’s recently confirmed pick for the Seventh Circuit, had ruled that “saying the words Jesus Christ in a prayer is a sign of inappropriate behavior, but saying Allah would be OK.”But it’s Lithwick who is doing the misleading, as she omits from her quotations from Hamilton’s order the brief passages that amply warrant the concern of Gingrich and other critics that Hamilton was engaging in an act of politically correct favoritism of…

• Hamilton Confirmed -- By: Ed Whelan

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pm

  By a 59-39 vote, the Senate has confirmed President Obama’s controversial (see here, here, here, here, and here) nomination of David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit.The only Republican to vote in favor of Hamilton was Richard Lugar of Hamilton’s home state of Indiana.

• Masquerading as a Judge -- By: Ed Whelan

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

  In another brazen abuse of his judicial office, Ninth Circuit judge Stephen Reinhardt yesterday purported to issue an order requiring the Office of the Federal Defender for the Central District of California to make an award of back pay to a deputy federal public defender who was not permitted to enroll his same-sex spouse as a beneficiary of his health-care plan.One of the many problems with Reinhardt’s order is that there was no case before him in his judicial capacity.Reinhardt was acting in his administrative capacity as designee of the current Chair of the Ninth Circuit’s Standing…

• Joan Biskupic's Biography of Justice Scalia-Part 4 -- By: Ed Whelan

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am

  It’s true, as I put it in my Part 1 post, that Joan Biskupic’s American Original is “in many places more evenhanded than I expected.”But my expectations were low, and Biskupic’s book is decidedly, if sometimes subtly, stacked against Scalia. One set of examples consists of Biskupic’s rhetoric.Time after time, Biskupic tells us that Scalia has “fervent” views (e.g., pp. 107, 149, 196) or a “fervidly argued position” (p. 196).He has an “authoritarian instinct” and an “authoritarian bent” (pp. 51, 64) that supposedly explains his views on executive power (but that…

• Joan Biskupic's Biography of Justice Scalia-Part 3 -- By: Ed Whelan

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:34 am

  In the prologue (p. 9) of American Original, Joan Biskupic presents the rhetorical questions that she says “go[] to the heart of Scalia’s legacy”: Is his brand of originalism simply a way to achieve conservative results?Does he talk a good game until his method fails to get him what he wants as a policy matter? Biskupic’s bottom-line answer to these questions is yes—e.g., “Scalia could not separate his constitutional views from the core of his identity, which was decidedly Catholic” (p. 210)—but her answer rests heavily on makeshift evidence. Let’s consider first the…

• 
  Newsvine - politics

• Obama Says Asia Trip Focused on Economy and Creating U.S. Jobs

  TDR

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  President Barack Obama said he focused much of his recent week-long trip to Asia on exploring ways to increase U.S. exports and thereby create jobs.

• Philadelphia Eagle turned potential candidate has spotty voting record

  Par4TheCourse

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

  Former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jon Runyan (R) is the latest professional athlete to look at running for political office, but his voting history may become a campaign issue.

• "Read the Stimulus" advocate Dick Armey slammed for not bothering to read the stimulus bill

  iarnuocon

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:22 am

  Yesterday, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee held a hearing on the implementation of the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus.

• Lets make waitressing a real job, with wages and benefits.

  Zanyzazu

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  Waitresses work very hard. It is a regular Job, but not often thought of that way.... The people who hire waitresses should pay them a decent wage....period. It is harder work than so many other jobs...and it is morally criminal to expect the patrons to pay employees wages.

• Catholic Church pushes, and some push back

  Par4TheCourse

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:55 am

  WASHINGTON - Representative Louise Slaughter has a consistent record advocating abortion rights.

• 
  The American Scene - Politics

• Hot Streak at BHTV

  Conor Friedersdorf

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

  Peter and I recorded a Bloggingheads episode today — I’ll post when it goes live — but meanwhile there are a bunch of good diavlogs up on that site: a fascinating discussion about memory in a digital age; Andrew Bacevich and David Frum grappling with the best response to a dangerous world; Megan McArdle and Dayo Olopade arguing about many topics, including whether abortion is health care or not; and many more. Though I no longer do work for that site, I am hopeful they’ll have great success, and proud to have been associated with it.

• PJTV Does Gitmo

  Conor Friedersdorf

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm

  I’ve had mixed feelings about Pajamas TV since it began. Roger Simon is a real talent, Andrew Klavan often has intelligent points to make, and Glenn Reynolds, a pioneer of the blogosphere, alerts me to a good link I wouldn’t have otherwise seen almost every time that I read his blog. The guy who interviewed me when I appeared on the site was very nice. Instapundit also regularly sends traffic to Megan McArdle, Mickey Kaus, and Radley Balko, so Professor Reynolds and I obviously have overlapping tastes in journalism. But I am dismayed at some of the content that the folks who run…

• Continetti on Palin

  Reihan Salam

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:53 pm

  My friend Matt Continetti — one of the smartest journalists I know — has written a smart and thoughtful comment for the Wall Street Journal on the long, difficult road ahead for Sarah Palin if she intends to become a serious presidential contender. Though I don’t agree with Matt in every detail, his basic argument, as I understand it, is: (1) Palin is polarizing and voters consider her underqualified for national office. (2) She needs to reintroduce herself to the public as a market-friendly populist who reaches out to the center from a solid conservative base. (3) High…

• Seven Isn't Just a Name on Seinfeld

  Conor Friedersdorf

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:29 pm

  1) Math is hard when you learn it inside the American educational system. 2) Interesting stuff from Tim Lee about large organizations. And he is right about exhausted doctors! 3) You’ve probably been underestimating pottery: In the usual experience of archeologists, inventions flow from mainlands to islands, and small peripheral societies aren’t supposed to contribute revolutionary advances to the rest of the world. It therefore astonished archeologists to discover that the world’s oldest known pottery was made in Japan 12,700 years ago. For the first time in human…

• Ringside Interview -- Taking Aim at the Judge's Scoring

  Conor Friedersdorf

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:48 pm

  John Hawkins and I just finished Round 2 of our debate. His remarks are here. Mine are here. Please do check them out. We’re due to go one last round, an opportunity to quickly address outstanding disagreements and write up our conclusions. Prior to penning that entry, I’d like to highlight a couple sections from Mr. Hawkins’ latest, because I think they shed light on the ongoing divisions on the right. I’ll link this post when I compose my final piece, and should Mr. Hawkins desire it, I’d gladly publish any response he has to this entry in particular as a full…

• 
  Pollster.com All Content

• US: Health Care, Fort Hood (Fox 11/17-18)

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pm

  by Emily SwansonFox News / Opinion Dynamics 11/17-19/09; 900 registered voters, 3% margin of error Mode: Live telephone interviews (Fox: Health Care, Fort Hood, Swine flu) National Based on what you know about the health care reform legislation being considered right now, do you favor or oppose the plan? 35% Favor, 51% Oppose (chart) Do you think abortion procedures should or should not be covered by private insurance plans? 37% Should, 51% Should not Do you favor or oppose the amendment to the health care reform bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week that prevents any…

• Omero: Remember the Women (in the HC debate)

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

  by Margie OmeroRight now the health care debate has shifted--perhaps temporarily--from the public option to abortion and mammograms. This makes it a good moment to remember the importance of women voters to national support for health care reform. Women are disproportionately affected by poor health care coverage Because of gender differences in work patterns, women are less likely to have employee coverage, and more likely to have less efficient individual coverage. Compared to men, women report being more likely to delay needed care, and more likely to spend over 10% of their income on…

• CA: 2010 Sen (Rasmussen 11/17)

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:03 am

  by Emily SwansonRasmussen 11/17/09; 500 likely voters, 4.5% margin of error Mode: Automated phone (Rasmussen release) California 2010 Senate (trends) Boxer 46%, Fiorina 37% (chart) Boxer 46%, DeVore 36% Favorable / Unfavorable Barbara Boxer: 51 / 41 (chart) Chuck DeVore: 31 / 25 Carly Fiorina: 40 / 29

• US: 2012 Pres (PPP 11/13-15)

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

  by Emily SwansonPublic Policy Polling (D) 11/13-15/09; 1,066 registered voters, 3% margin of error Mode: Automated phone (PPP release) National Obama Job Approval (previously released) 49% Approve, 46% Disapprove (chart) Favorable / Unfavorable Mike Huckabee: 36 / 37 (chart) Sarah Palin: 40 / 49 (chart) Ron Paul: 23 / 34 Mitt Romney: 30 / 39 (chart) 2012 President Obama 49%, Huckabee 44% Obama 51%, Palin 43% Obama 46%, Paul 38% Obama 48%, Romney 43%

• NY: 2010 Gov (Marist 11/12-17)

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

  by Emily SwansonMarist 11/12, 11/16-17/09; 805 registered voters, 3.5% margin of error 365 Democrats, 5.5% margin of error Mode: Live telephone interviews (Marist release) New York 2010 Governor: Democratic Primary 72% Cuomo, 21% Paterson (chart) 2010 Governor: General Election 69% Cuomo, 24% Lazio (chart) 44% Paterson, 44% Lazio (chart) Do you want David Paterson to run for governor in 2010, or not? 30% Yes, 63% No Job Approval / Disapproval 20% Excellent/Good, 76% Fair/Poor (chart)

• 
  Politicker.com -- California News

• [America's Finest Blog] Please go here from now on ...

  chris reed

  14 Nov 2009 | 5:48 pm

  http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/blogs/americas-finest-blog/ Thanks, sorry for the hassles, please keep visiting me at the new URL. Chris...

• [America's Finest Blog] Opposition to charters hits a pathetic new low, even for California

  chris reed

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:54 pm

  Community groups and Los Angeles Unified officials on Tuesday condemned an anonymous flyer handed to Latino parents that threatened them with deportation if they supported plans to convert their neighborhood school to a charter. United Teachers Los Angeles denies responsibility,...

• [America's Finest Blog] Forensic journalism 101: Last quote shows what reporter wants you to believe

  chris reed

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:52 pm

  I'm back for now blogging with the old software. For years, I have believed that a reporter's last paragraph shows his real feelings. That's when I was a reporter, I tried to end my stories with benign stuff like "Supervisors...

• [America's Finest Blog] Once again, sorry about the technical woes ...

  chris reed

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:12 pm

  ... this is the first time I've been able to log in since Monday night. But soon this will be fixed and I'll be back to the usual whining. Joel Anderson, I haven't forgotten that you're in your second month...

• [America's Finest Blog] Sorry about technical woes keeping site down -- regular blogging resumes tomorrow

  chris reed

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

  Thanks for the e-mails of concern. My blog lives on. Though pretty soon after a format change it's gonna be known as America's Finest blog, not America's Finest Blog. Nice conflict of interest, Al Gore. Maybe this explains why you...

• 
  techPresident

• An Internet Politico's Guide to David Plouffe's "The Audacity to Win"

  Colin Delany

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:46 pm

  Cross-posted from Epolitics.com Here at e.politics, we're happy to read things so you don't have to -- though it this case you should, because David Plouffe's The Audacity to Win is a great read and one hell of a glimpse into the strategy, tactics and execution of a remarkably successful political operation. Suspecting the book's value as a resource in the future, I took extensive notes as I read through it -- essentially creating an index of every substantive mention of online politics in the book, which I've reprinted below as a resource for y'all, along with a few links to relevant…

• PdF Europe: Live Audio Stream at Civicolive.com/pdfeu

  Micah L. Sifry

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:01 am

  If you want to follow along with the Personal Democracy Forum Europe conference live by audio, we're pleased to be partnering with Civico, an internet radio station based in Birmingham, England, which will be streaming all the sessions over the next two days at http://www.civicolive.com/pdfeu. read more

• David Plouffe: Negative Viral Emails As Bad As Negative TV Ads

  Colin Delany

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:29 pm

  Cross-posted from Epolitics.com Just off a conference call to promote Obama campaign manager David Plouffe's new (and so-far excellent) book about the 2008 race, which I'm currently about 3/4 of the way through -- more about that soon. On the call, though, I got to ask a question about the behind-the-scenes smear emails that circulated regularly throughout the campaign -- what did the campaign do to respond that was most effective, and how should future political operations reply to similar tactics? Plouffe's response was that campaigns need to take negative messages spread online from person…

• Time for PdF Europe

  Nancy Scola

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:49 am

  Blogging will be light (if not nonexistent) today as much of the PdF crew is on its way to Barcelona for the first ever Personal Democracy Forum Europe conference, to be held in Torre Agbar -- a.k.a. the rounded tower rising above the city on the right side of the photo above. (We'll also be taking a break from the Daily Digest through the Thanksgiving holiday, so check the blog for new content.) We'll have updates and coverage here as the conference progresses, and please do follow along with all the action through the Twitter hashtag #pdfeu. Hasta más tarde! (Photo credit: Gerard…

• Accountability Through Web 2.0: A Sudan Case Study

  Ivan Boothe

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:46 pm

  Ivan Boothe works with nonprofits and social change groups, developing websites and online strategy around advocacy, fundraising and member engagement. Previously, he was a co-founder of the Genocide Intervention Network and served as director of communications and Internet strategy coordinator. Last week, Special Envoy to Sudan Gen. Scott Gration sat down with representatives from Save Darfur and the student network STAND for an unprecedented live Q&A, webcast directly from the White House website. The event served as the launch of an initiative the White House is calling Ask U.S., "an…

• 
  Paul Krugman

• Interest rates: the phantom menace

  By PAUL KRUGMAN

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am

  What I think lies behind the surprising deficit squeamishness of the Obama administration, and why it's wrong-headed.

• Exterminate! Exterminate!

  By PAUL KRUGMAN

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

  Daleks and EU foreign policy.

• Invisible bond vigilantes

  By PAUL KRUGMAN

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm

  It would be a very, very bad thing if the administration is intimidated into passivity -- or, worse, into neo-Hooverism -- by the threat from invisible, probably imaginary enforcers.

• The AIG report

  By PAUL KRUGMAN

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:21 am

  By itself, the AIG story would be damaging enough. But it's part of a pattern -- and that pattern has ended up undermining the economy's prospects, big time.

• The madness of the inflation hawks

  By PAUL KRUGMAN

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:59 am

  Monetary tightening shouldn't be on the agenda for a long, long time.

• 
  Corrente

• The Long Climb Back

  danps

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:21 am

  No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

• BUST -- the life you save might be your own

  Sarah

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:59 pm

  That's right, folks. Buckle up, stop texting. Sounds simple, eh? It's a safety program a local sports director started in response to a tragedy earlier this month. His name's Pete Christy, and he's a genuinely nice guy. As skipper of the team that covers more than 70 local high schools' football teams every week (that's a big deal in Texas, but even for West Texas Pete Christy and NewsChannel 11's "End Zone" goes all out to cover football), he knows the small towns hereabouts better than anybody else on Lubbock TV -- even some of the people…

• Is irony universal?

  lambert

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:21 pm

  Isn't it pretty to think so.

• What can you bring to the table?

  gqmartinez

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pm

  Cause an "old school liberal" movement will be outgunned financially. We won't have access to the media. We won't have an infrastructure and decades worth of volunteer and voting lists. We will be ridiculed or called racists. You know, just like a standard day hangin' around this C-list cesspool.

• "Guy Debord changed my life!"

  lambert

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:36 pm

  Yes, put DeBord on your reading list, for sure. As Montag writes: