On Ahmadinejad.
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Why Restoring Abstinence Funding Isn’t the End of the World
You may have heard that on Tuesday evening, the Senate Finance Committee approved another Hatch amendment (he’s got a million of ’em, folks) to restore $50 million in Title V funding for abstinence-only programs that Congress allowed to expire in June. As you might imagine, this has social conservatives somersaulting and social …
Who Said Bipartisanship Was Dead?
It’s not all arguments and split votes in the Senate Finance Committee. Chairman Baucus just led the committee in a chorus for birthday girl Blanche Lambert Lincoln. Not to go all Simon Cowell on them, but it was a little pitchy. The rendition was, however, nowhere near as traumatizing as the sight of a Tom DeLay ass-shake (I’m blaming …
Kagans on the Warpath. Ugh! Ugh!
The Wandering Kagan Minstrel Singers are in full voice this week, plumping for all the usual stuff–regime change in Iran, a surge in Afghanistan. Happily, they have less stroke than they used to–the neocons are not only gone from office, but also pretty much gone from the vast centrist foreign policy consensus. Still, they endure: Fred …
And The Abortion Stalemate Continues
The Senate Finance Committee just voted on two amendments offered by Senator Orrin Hatch that form the heart of what Senate Republicans say they would need to make health reform what they call “abortion neutral.” (Whether they would vote for health reform even if their demands were met on abortion, is a question they decline to answer, …
Why Does Elmo Hate America?
Our colleague Jim P. has the video of Michelle Obama’s upcoming (November 10) appearance on Sesame Street. And to save White House critics some time, he suggests some possible protest-ready reasons to get outraged about the segment. My favorite:
At the end of the video, Mrs. Obama declares homegrown vegetables delicious to eat. Then the
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Public Option Debate in the Senate Finance Committee
Although the prospects of a public option finding its way into the Senate Finance Committee health reform bill are bleak, Chairman Max Baucus seems ready to devote the bulk of today’s markup to the topic.
The committee spent most of its morning session rehashing the arguments for and against the creation of a public health …
Philo-Semitism Gone Amok
Mike Gerson and Ezra Klein are two of the more temperate partisans I know. Gerson is an evangelical conservative whose speeches sometimes managed to make George W. Bush look like he sorta knew what he was talking about; he was also among the rare Bushies who supported faith-based social programs because of the impact they made on the …
One More Polanski Thought
Tom Reese’s observation is probably right: “Father Polanski would go to jail.”
Something tells me hotshot directors wouldn’t be lining up to demand the release of someone accused of the same crime who wasn’t one of them. (Well, maybe Woody Allen would…) So how is what they’re calling for now anything other than celebrity justice?
Re: Roman Polanski Is Not A Victim
The most bizarre justification I’ve seen yet is in this story from CNN.com:
Roman Polanski is Not a Victim
Enough already. The Global Committee to Defend Roman Polanski is shocked and appalled by the arrest of their talented friend in Switzerland over the weekend. This quote from our colleague Bruce Crumley’s report from France provides a flavor of the outrage:
“To see him thrown to the lions and put in prison because of ancient history —
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“May I Have Your Fax Number?”
In case you needed another reminder of how ridiculous, frustrating, and outdated our health care system is, this entertaining Jonathan Rauch column is well worth your time. If you’ve ever had to switch doctors, requiring you to either fax records from your old doctor to your new one or–even better–show up in person to sign a release so …
The Week That Was
Really, a week that brought us a lip-syncing, booty-shaking Tom Delay in rhinestones can’t be all bad.
Paul Slansky, in an email, sums it up this way:
Wolf Blitzer turns out to be as dumb as you always suspected, John Edwards is even more of a beast than you thought, and did you hear the one about drunk Boris Yeltsin in front of
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