Joe will no doubt have much more to tell us about TIME’s interview with an unapologetic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this morning. But for the moment, you can watch the Iranian president answer a few questions from TIME head honcho Rick Stengel about news of an existing nuclear facility.
Uncategorized
SNL Gives Us A Thursday Night Glenn Beck Taste
Oh, how we missed you this summer. . .
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3493964&w=425&h=350&fv=]
more about “SNL Does Glenn Beck, David Patterson“, posted with vodpod
No Public Option Debate Until Tuesday
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus just opened today’s health reform bill markup by saying amendments related to a public option will not be introduced and debated until Tuesday. He said intends to close the hearing around noon today and won’t reconvene the markup until Tuesday. Democratic Senators Jay Rockefeller and Chuck …
Barack Obama’s Polls: A Little Down But Nowhere Near Out
Obama is down from where he once was in polling. Independents surveyed in the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll say they disapprove of his job performance by a margin of 46 to 41 percent, a increase in bad feelings from July. But the big takeaway I see in the poll is that all this doom and gloom–the Town Hall terrors of August, and …
While We’re Waiting for CBO….
The Congressional Budget Office moves too slowly for Chairman Max Baucus. When CBO Director Doug Elmendorf told the committee earlier this week that it would take his office several weeks to formally assess the cost of Baucus’s most recent version of his bill – modified over the weekend and released Tuesday – the chairman said that was …
Finance Committee Democrats Buck the White House
For the most part, 13-10 vote tallies on the Senate Finance Committee’s heath reform bill this week will be strictly along party lines. There are 13 Democrats on the committee, including Chairman Max Baucus, and 10 Republicans. But a 13-10 divide this afternoon on an amendment from Democrat Bill Nelson indicated a different kind of split.
Policy v. Power
David Broder has a very strange column today, praising a paper by the conservative scholar William Schambra in which the author criticizes Barack Obama for being interested in…policy.
Paul Kirk
Who is the new, interim Senator from Massachusetts? Dan Fletcher tells us here.
Latest Column
On the relationship of health care reform and Afghanistan.
Dear Insurance Company, You Have a Right to be Wrong
Before the lunch break in the Senate Finance Committee’s markup on health reform legislation, members engaged in a long and ultra-wonky debate on Medicare Advantage. The debate was essentially about whether more than $100 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage will lead to a reduction in benefits. At the risk of being unclear, the …
Barack Obama’s New State Secrets Policy: The Question Of Court Review
Can the executive branch be trusted to make its own determinations of when “state secrets” released in court could significantly harm national security? That is the issue that is being debated today among civil libertarians in the wake of the Justice Department’s announcement of a new state secrets policy.
Isrant
It really is galling to have Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s bigot of a foreign minister, crowing about Netanyahu’s “victory” over the Obama Administration on the issue of illegal settlement-building. For one thing, I don’t know how much of a victory this is. It continues to put Israel on the wrong side of international law. And it probably …
Sarah Palin Goes to Asia
In her first trip to the Eastern continent and her first paid speaking engagement, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin reserved some zingers for the audience back home. Even though the speech was officially closed press, the Wall Street Journal got their hands on a recording.
Ms. Palin didn’t refer to President Barack Obama by name, but
…