Some news that’s surfacing slowly is Iran’s new bluster on refining higher grade uranium. Russia and Israel seem to be talking the same language, while China still isn’t willing to sign on to harsh sanctions, something SecDef Gates is promising will come sooner rather than later. Even as it will take some time to reconfigure [...] [...more]
–updated– This photo came via email. As you all know, I have a different opinion on this one, but thought you’d appreciate it. The floor is open tonight. Favorite of mine today comes from Dana Milbank, surprisingly: Mullen deserves medal for Senate testimony backing open military service by gays. I’ll second that. Mike Mullen’s 42 years in the [...] [...more]
–updated– The video is a demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem that ended in arrests and detentions, which caused quite a stir back in January. Discontent in some quarters is rising in Israel over freedom of speech and assembly issues, but also the rights of women, including a dispute about bus segregation that’s turned into quite [...] [...more]
On Thursday, I heard Eugene Robinson on “Hardball” talk about something he’d heard about DADT from a little rat in the White House. It was clear he was very uncomfortable about reporting it. “What I heard this morning from somebody at the White House was probably not this year. But, maybe we would be [...] [...more]
Tit for tat, presidential style or actually not so presidential, though Obama is only a politician, so notwithstanding his “change the tone in Washington” lectures, he’s as guilty as the next when it suits him. However, when you have a Supreme Court Justice impersonating a right-winger like Joe “you lie” Wilson, the whole event turns [...] [...more]
–updated– A Democratic operative familiar with the get-out-the-vote push by Martha Coakley’s team and boosted late in the game by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that outreach workers in and around Boston have been stunned by the number of Democrats and Obama supporters who are waving them off, saying they’ll vote for Scott Brown. – [...] [...more]
updated Obama needs to stop playing inside games with bankers and insurance lobbyists, and start being a fighter for regular Americans. Otherwise, he can kiss it all goodbye. – Robert Kuttner (Robert Kuttner is Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The American Prospect, from Massachusetts) No one ever said what Kuttner wrote about Obama above about Martin Luther King, [...] [...more]
The Politico headline is the jumping off point. The subtitle the lede: Harold Ford’s political weakness may be his high-paid job at Merrill Lynch and a gilded Manhattan life. Yeah, because we all know how much the American electorate is ready to sign on to that this year. Mr. Ford declined to discuss what he is paid [...] [...more]
Who knows, maybe New York will make Harold Ford, Jr. lean left. But that simply hasn’t been his record, regardless of his protestations in the New York Post, of all papers, today. Recently, Mr. Ford said he’d “evolved” on gay marriage (”Today” show video), having voted against it in Tennessee, supporting the Defense of Marriage [...] [...more]
Ted Olson and David Boies partner up. Opening statement today, with one small section below: First – Marriage is vitally important in American society. Second – By denying gay men and lesbians the right to marry, Proposition 8 works a grievous harm on the plaintiffs and other gay men and lesbians throughout California, and adds yet another [...] [...more]
updated below Sen. Harry Reid made a ridiculously embarrassing statement about Barack Obama. He apologized. Pres. Obama accepted. End of story? Hardly. Because everyone must get their scalp. In fact, even using the phrase with the word “scalp” in it, I’m likely to get hate mail. But one ray of light, the Congressional Black Caucus backs [...] [...more]
updated below Bob McDonnell won the Virginia governorship because he was running against a pitifully weak Democratic candidate, but also because he used economic discontent, something Frank Rich talks about today, which extends to health care, while utilizing Democrats in Washington as the target model, tapping into what independents are feeling right now, while simultaneously capitalizing [...] [...more]
As regulars know, my uncle Dick flew missions in WWII, ending up with what they called “battle fatigue.” A lot has changed since the old days of the mid-20th century military joined the world to fight. Some of it not good. Whether it’s in Iraq or Afghanistan, the multiple deployments that began under Bush-Cheney has stressed [...] [...more]
… Real health-care reform is supposed to eliminate discrimination based on preexisting conditions. But the legislation allows insurance companies to charge older Americans up to three times as much as younger Americans, pricing them out of coverage. The bill was supposed to give Americans choices about what kind of system they wanted to enroll in. [...] [...more]
updated “If you think you are sick of Joe Lieberman now,” Jim Shea, a columnist in The Hartford Courant, wrote Monday, “just wait until you get sick.” – Lieberman Gets Ex-Party to Shift on Health Plan We’ve gone from the Teddy Kennedy health care bill to the Joe Lieberman bill. The Senate proving it’s a failed institution [...] [...more]
