In the ArenaUncategorized
Today Jackson Diehl picks up Charles Krauthammer’s theme of last Friday, which is that Barack Obama is getting played by the Russians. This is a theme that goes back to John McCain’s overreaction to the skirmish in Georgia last summer–and further, to Robert Kagan’s theory that the Russkies are roaring again. Which goes back to the …
Though little birdies tell me that the nightmares of the Obama administration’s vetting process are very real (Note to Greg Craig: you may want more than 10 people on this spending more than a day per person…?!), they haven’t yet actually deterred many folks from wanting to join up and serve at the pleasure of the president (ahem, …
This week’s TIME cover story is about why Kate Winslet should win Best Actress, which she did last night. But even that fact does not give me a legitimate excuse to write a Swampland post about the talented actress. Nevertheless, I cannot resist posting a link to this video here. It’s just too perfect.
That’s what Robert Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, calls the current task of pushing entitlement reform through Congress while managing a cratering economy. My TIME.com story on Obama’s plans and today’s fiscal summit is here.
Also, for more on how Obama is planning for health care savings to provide …
First off: Despite the protester who regularly screams at me about Obama’s birth certificate when I approach the White House gates, there is no serious doubt about the fact that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. None. Nada. Zippo. Hawaiian state officials have said there is no doubt–they have the paperwork. Factcheck.org has seen and …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Bobby Jindal is a very smart fellow. Back when he was in Congress, I’d try to check in with him every six months or so, just to see what he was thinking about. At first, we talked about health insurance–his specialty. Then, about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina (he was appalled). He was fairly relentlessly conservative, but …
Alas, however, not by me. Though I begged and begged, the High Sheriffs refused to let me join our Oscar liveblogging team of Kate Betts, Richard Corliss and James Poniewozik. (Hey, aren’t these awards all about the politics?)
So I’ll be razzing them from the comments section instead. You can, too, starting around 6 p.m. Eastern. …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Mark Steyn argues yes, sort of. Mostly he’s concerned with Britain’s wussy, censorious refusal to allow the Dutch parliamentarian/documentarian Geert Wilders to show his film about Islamic radicalism, “Fitna,” in the U.K. Well, we can agree on this: the west should, under no circumstances, allow its freedom of speech to compromised by …
Homeless policy usually focuses on those who are already homeless, getting them off the streets or out of shelters into transitional or permanent housing, and providing mental health or substance abuse treatment to the chronically homeless. And that’s what much of the $1.6 billion in grants that HUD announced yesterday for programs that …
For a month now we have called Barack Obama president and the baby milestone was marked in different ways by different folks. But my favorite is CBS’s Mark Knoller, who serves it up by the numbers.
Update:
Reader Dee points out that it might be fun to compare coverage of Obama’s first month with other presidents. I agree, so here we …
Also in the next issue of TIME magazine, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy makes his case for a truth commission to investigate possible crimes by the Bush Administration.
From my profile of Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, in the next issue of TIME magazine:
Hours after the lowest point of his boss’s first two weeks in office, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ended the first chapter of the Obama presidency and launched the second. At the end of his morning staff meeting — where his team had
…
We would have a lot more cryptic gobbledygook like this to read:
An article published on February 21, 2008, about Senator John McCain and his record as an ethics reformer who was at times blind to potential conflicts of interest included references to Vicki Iseman, a Washington lobbyist. The article did not state, and The Times did not
…
