This is how Washington really works: Even a top liberal advocate for taking a strong stand against the insurance industry takes money behind the scenes from the insurance industry. On Sunday, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who was once a nominee to be President Obama’s Secretary of Health And Human Services, appeared on NBC’s [...]
I’m beginning to hope that Hamid Karzai pulls a Ahmadi-Khamenei and steals the thing. Yes, he is corrupt and incompetent. Yes, democracy is a wonderful thing. But too much democracy, too soon, in a country that is barely governed–see under Palestine, 2005–can be a toxic disaster. The problem in Afghanistan is, as the NY Times [...]
It’s been a while since we had a good campaign ad on Swampland. You remember the type–macho comforting voice over, soaring music, stock footage of the national character, looking up with big eyes or flapping in the wind. So here goes, the kickoff online spot for Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who announced today [...]
Tom DeLay, who just five years ago was still hailed as one of the most powerful people in America, has agreed to be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, along with a guy named Ashley Hamilton, who is both the ex-husband of Shannen Doherty (195 days!) and a member of the supporting cast from [...]
It is wrong to call Iran a monarchy, even though it has a supreme leader who oversees all matters of state. (He is, in turn, overseen by a council of Islamic scholars, the Assembly of Experts, which has the ability to remove, in theory, the supremacy of the supreme.) But it is still striking to [...]
The news that the Obama Administration seems to be abandoning the so-called Public Option should come as no surprise to anyone who was following this issue. My assumption always was that the public option–which was never really defined (there were several versions)–was a bargaining chip to be cashed late in the game in return to [...]
Charles Grassley responds to the idea that his 2003 vote for the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA)–which, again, included funding for end-of-life counseling–in any way makes his stringent opposition to end-of-life counseling in current health reform legislation somewhat questionable: The MMA offers terminally ill patients a pain and care management evaluation and counseling about hospice care [...]
Apparently, Obama not only wants to kill your grandma, he also wants to invade your home and take your kids. Is it September yet?
Our White House Photo Blog caught this one from President Obama’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire earlier this week (when I was in neighboring Vermont, and well outside the range of any kind of signal). So, Swampland commenters , what do you think that last question should have been? (I’m looking at you, commenter [...]
