Back on A4 of the Washington Post, we find that the states are preparing contingency plans as the President and Congress remain at odds over SCHIP. The House vote to try to override Bush’s veto is now expected on Thursday, but leaders there still look short of the votes they need. Meanwhile, a short-term fix keeps the funding going until …
SwampCast: This One’s for the Ladies
In which gender is discussed.
The Roof, the Roof, the Roof Is On Fire
The DNC is happily picking away at Giuliani’s recently released numbers, and they have uncovered some fun facts. My favorite:
Top Heavy: $10.3 million of $11.4 were itemized, meaning from people who have given at least $200. That’s about 90%. Fully 65% of this quarter’s donations came from individuals who have given $2000 or more to
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Heat in Alabama
As many Swampland readers know, Adam Zagorin broke new ground recently with his reporting on the Don Siegelman case and the seemingly partisan pursuit of justice in Alabama. Now the conservative editorial page of the Birmingham News, Alabama’s biggest newspaper, has weighed in with an editorial citing Time’s story and calling on …
The Littlest Swiftboat
MoveOn.org has gotten heavily involved in trying to save SCHIP, and they’re having a series of rallies in support of the measure tomorrow, including one right on the Hill at 5. It will feature an appearance, says a press release, by “two and a half year old Bethany whose life was saved by surgery her family wouldn’t have been able to …
Should There Be a Gitmo for Blackwater?
Over at the LA Times, Julian Barnes looks at an interesting question:
WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration deals with the fallout from the recent killings of civilians by private security firms in Iraq, some officials are asking whether the contractors could be considered unlawful combatants under international agreements.
The
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In the ArenaUncategorized
Republican Lung-Ripping Begins
This is a shameless plug: The Republican race has reached critical mass, with Thompson, McCain, Giuliani and Romney going after each other–and you can watch it on a minute-to-minute basis, almost in real time (and on real Time.com), at Mark Halperin’s new political redoubt, The Page.
Take a Look…
Our colleague Mark Halperin’s new feature The Page debuts today.
Daily Jumble: Excuses-Free Edition
News of the day that’s caught my eye. Please update and expand with your own catches in the comments.
• GOP candidates violating Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment left and right. Mostly right. [NYT]
• Al-Qaeada in Iraq: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Maybe. “‘It only takes three people’ to construct and detonate a suicide car bomb that can ‘kill …
In the ArenaUncategorized
On Gore
Paul Krugman is absolutely right about the mouth-frothing wingnut response to Gore–or, in fact, to any other Democrat who begins to show some traction with the public. And Krugman raises an interesting point here:
The sulfuric acid in America’s lakes mainly comes from coal burned in U.S. power plants, but the carbon dioxide in
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In the ArenaUncategorized
Broder, Ezra and I…
are all in favor of Ron Wyden’s health care plan, according to Broder’s column today…which will probably prove confusing to ideologues. But it is not insignificant when David Broder comes out in favor of a pretty radical plan that would relieve employers of the burden of providing health insurance, provide true universality and mandate …
Coming Home: A Wife’s Battle
Anne Hull and Dana Priest, the extraordinary Washington Post reporters who brought to light how Walter Reed was failing our wounded soldiers, have turned their attention–and ours–to another heartbreaking story about another kind of hero: a young West Virginia wife who is struggling to hold together her family and find her husband the …
In the ArenaUncategorized
The Perils of Arrogance
This is a very good column today by David Ignatius, a reminder of an essential flaw in the Bush Administration’s foreign policy–the neo-colonialist arrogance. One slight correction–if I’m not mistaken, David Kilcullen is already a State Department employee, and that’s a good thing.