The talk this morning is all about the tax cuts included in Barack Obama’s stimulus package, which is understandable, but also a bit misleading. Some of my colleagues are acting as if the $1000 tax break for families with incomes under $200,000 is some sort of surprise or shocker–interesting, since Obama promised it in every [...]
Start watching at 9:20. My favorite Al Franken scene–from the 1983 cinematic masterpiece, Trading Places. Al Franken has been certified the winner by the state’s canvassing board. In the Capitol just a few moments ago, Democrat Harry Reid said it was all over. Republican Mitch McConnell said it won’t be over until the coming litigation [...]
TIME’s Mark Thompson points out that there are roughly 250 detainees now held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. At a similar facility at Bagram, Afghanistan, the U.S. military is holding an estimated 670 detainees. Furthermore, “the U.S. military is building a new prison for what it calls ‘unlawful enemy combatants’ at Bagram that [...]
As Joe notes below, multiple news outlets are reporting that Obama has found his next CIA director: Leon Panetta, who once quit the Nixon Administration in protest over his Civil Rights policy, and later became a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. On cue, Marc Ambinder finds the clip, which answers the most immediate [...]
This smells a bit of desperation. Leon Panetta is a terrific guy, a fine public servant–one of those people who reek of sanity and good judgment–but he doesn’t have much, if any, experience in spook world. The problem was trying to find a DCI with intelligence experience who wasn’t tainted during the Bush Administration. The [...]
When it comes to big-time campaign contributors, ideologues are often the most noble. They tend to give because they believe in ideas, not because they want some personal favor in return. Peter Buttenweiser, a Philadelphia philanthropist, is a good case in point. For years, he was one of the Democratic Party’s biggest benefactors ($1.3 million [...]
Leave it to Bill Kristol to take the situation in Gaza–a necessary corrective action on Israel’s part, I believe (with a few caveats)–and transform it into a call for war with Iran. But here he is, in today’s Times: The huge challenge for the Obama administration is going to be Iran. If Israel had yielded [...]
Ari Officer, writing at Time.com, explains just how fragile our financial cathedrals have become. Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme continues to rock the financial world. But most hedge funds actually engage in similar — albeit legal — practices in the short run. These practices helped inflate their gains, as well as hedge fund managers’ [...]
NBC is reporting: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state. “Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in [...]
Once again, we are at the moment where thousands of out-of-towners are about to arrive in Washington for a Cinderella Evening, with their suitcases full of expensive dresses and killer shoes. Which will give way to the most time-honored of morning-after rituals: complaining about how awful (hot, crowded, no food, long lines at the bar) [...]
