Most Important Story of the Day

7.6% UPDATE: Commenter Paul Dirks asks: Is there somewhere a clear chart showing what percentage of jobs are in which sectors and another one showing what percentage of lost jobs are in which sector. Here are the unemployment stats by industry, in a chart by Jacob Hay of the Laborers Union: snapshot-2009-02-06-11-28-431

Underplayed Story of the Day

Could we have our $78 billion back, please?

In the Arena

Please Go Away–II

In today’s edition of Please Go Away, we have Andrew Card suggesting that Barack Obama should wear a suit and tie when he’s in the Oval Office. After all, George W. Bush did–and all that respect for the office helped him to be a really great President.  The point is, when people are actually working–as [...]

Thanks for Clearing That Up, Congressman.

When pressed to clarify, Sessions said he was not comparing the House Republican caucus to the Taliban, the Muslim fundamentalist group. –GOP Rep. Pete Sessions, after suggesting to Hotline that House Republicans should study you-know-who’s insurgency tactics.

The Latest on the Stimulus

Greetings from Capitol Hill where the Senate is in the final throes of the stimulus package – no pun intended. As things stand right now there are 14 amendments/substitutions left on the docket. One more is expected this afternoon from Ben Nelson’s Gang of roughly 16 (the membership, which includes upwards of eight Republicans, keeps [...]

Fixing the Deficit

One solution: Barack Obama should nominate everyone in the country to his cabinet.

In the Arena

An Israeli Electoral Embarrassment?

Arik Ben-Zvi has a piece in The New Republic warning about the apparent strength of Avigdor Lieberman’s demi-racist anti-Arab Yisrael Beitanu (“Israel is our  Home”) party in the coming elections:  Lieberman has focused much of his campaign inciting public anger against Israel’s Arab minority. He accuses Israeli-Arab lawmakers of harboring Hamas sympathies, and has called for [...]

Return on Investment

So it turns out the financial industry hasn’t entirely lost its touch, when it comes to wise investing. This from the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets website: The companies that have been awarded taxpayers’ money from Congress’s bailout bill spent $77 million on lobbying and $37 million on federal campaign contributions, Center finds. The return [...]

The Obama Message Shift

Gone is the warm and fuzzy talk about how everything is on track and Washington can get along at bipartisan White House cocktail parties. In is the tough talk about how members of Congress–particularly Republicans–have to stop bickering and threatening delay, and get something done. While President Obama continues to be deeply involved in the [...]

US Air 1549 Cockpit to Tower Recordings

“Tower stop your departures we got an emergency returning.” “Who is it?” “It’s 1529. He ah bird strike. He lost all engines. He lost the thrust in the engines. He is returning immediately. “Cactus 1529 which engines.” “He lost thrust in both engines, he said.” “Got it.” “Cactus 1529 if we can get it to [...]