Archive for August, 2009
The Best and the Brightest
Rahm Emanuel edition: The Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported this morning that Rahm Emanuel warned leaders of liberal groups in a private meeting this week that it was time to stop running ads attacking Blue Dog and “centrist” Dems on health care. I’m told, however, that Emanuel went quite a bit further than this. Sources at [...]
A Turkey From President Obama, Just In Time For Thanksgiving
Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post columnist: Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society — whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us [...]
News From The Front Lines
The Washington Post reports that the Finance Committee is “inching toward bipartisan agreement on a health-care plan”. A specific plan, the details of which are sketched out. In case you’re wondering, yes, they thought it best to throw the baby out with the bath water: The emerging Finance Committee bill would shave about $100 billion [...]
The Justice Department’s Innovative Solution To Evidence-Obtained-By-Torture Problems
Last Friday, I wrote about the case of Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad. U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle had ordered Jawad released, because the evidence against him was “riddled with holes”, but the government still had the option of filing criminal charges against him in the regular justice system instead. Judge Huvelle “strongly encouraged the [...]
I Wonder How This Happened
Poll: McDonnell Way Ahead In Virginia — Because Republicans Are More Motivated A new survey of Virginia from Public Policy Polling (D) finds Republican former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell with a big lead over Democratic state Sen. Creigh Deeds — with GOPers currently a lot more motivated to be likely voters right now. [...] [...]
What Would They Be Fighting For?
Josh Marshall asks: We spent most of Monday reporting on these tea-bagging crowds going to Democratic health care town hall meetings to shout down the hosts and shut the events down. It’s classic agitprop, very akin to the ‘Brooks Brothers riot’ down in Florida during the recount. But where’s the other team? Folks can whine [...]
Tidbits From The War Against Terror
(1) Victims Of TWAT We still have detainees in Guantanamo who have been held there for years, without ever been charged with anything, not even before a military commission: Hambali (who “is accused of leading the Jemaah Islamiah group, an organization allied with al-Qaeda that is accused of staging the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing”) was [...]
Rubbing Ben Nelson’s Thin Skin Some More
Fact: According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. Nelson has raised more than $2 million from insurance and health care interests in his three campaigns for federal office. … Sen. Nelson has received $1,195,299 from insurance interests, $399,345 from health professionals, $258,483 from the pharmaceutical industry, and $195,138 from hospital and nursing home [...]