In the ArenaUncategorized
It now appears that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is going to form a new government–with the support of none other than Muqtada Sadr, who is always called a “radical cleric” by the western media and whose Mahdi Army militia inflicted some of the worst losses on the U.S. military during the recent war. Sadr is a curious figure–a …
I wouldn’t count on either the politics of TARP shifting too much or John Thune boasting about his vote any time soon. Here’s the Senator in a recent interview with Major Garrett and Jeff Zeleny (relevant section starts around the three-minute mark):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QyG2hzMMrI]
I have probably been one of the
…
The UK has been more productive than the US in addressing climate change, legislatively at least. In 2009, the EU committed to a “20% by 2020” resolution to cut carbon emissions as a whole, a measure that allowed for intriguing means of flexibility like limiting the increase on emissions for developing (read: Eastern European) …
So it looks like the passionately-reviled $700 billion TARP bailout–maybe not quite a Big Bang for the Tea Party movement, but certainly a huge event in its history–will wind up costing the federral government relatively little. Indeed, it seems taxpayers may even turn a profit on the fall 2008 bank bailout. As former Utah Senator Bob …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Los Angeles, Ca.
Traveling Companions: none
Events: Closing it Down
Mileage: 6,782
Yesterday, in late afternoon, I stood at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful day, the beach was empty, the ocean calm. The trip was over. It was an amazing experience, perhaps a transformative one. I’ve started to rethink my …
We hear a lot of rationales for the ongoing war in Afghanistan. One is is that we’re flushing out al Qaeda. Another is that we’re defending the stability of Pakistan. Then there’s the argument that we simply can’t accept defeat because it would have consequences beyond the immediate region–ones that would “resonate throughout the …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius apologized today for a 1940s U.S. government program that intentionally infected Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases without their consent.
“The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was …
In the ArenaUncategorized
I’ve always been a Rahm fan, even when I disagreed with him. Love the passion, the quickness, the candor. Ron Brownstein has a nice appreciation of what Emanuel actually believes here. But his departure–and Pete Rouse’s imminent arrival–highlight a debilitating tendency that Democratic presidents have: they tend to go for chiefs of …
–President Obama will make a “personnel announcement” at 11:05 am from the East Room (Spoiler: As Michael noted, Emanuel is out and Pete Rouse is replacing him.)
—Ezra Klein has a thorough primer/link dump on the soon-to-be chief of staff.
–Max Boot critiques Bob Woodward’s “Obama’s Wars” as too far removed from the …
Outgoing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is called a lot of things, but “selfless” is not often among them. No one says he shuns the limelight, or has a low-key personality, or prefers to give credit for his accomplishments to others.
But then no one has ever before had much reason to compare Emanuel’s hyperkinetic, …
In this week’s dead tree edition I have a story about Senator Lisa Murkowski and why not to count her out despite the fact that no one since Strum Thurmond in 1954 has won a write in election. As the most highly subsidized state, Alaskans are feeling the loss of Ted Stevens acutely; during his 49 years in the Senate he brought billions …
I have a story in the new print issue about the mind-boggling $119 million in personal funds that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a billionaire Republican, has poured into her campaign for governor of California. Democrat Jerry Brown, by contrast, has only spent about $4 million (though he has raised $30 million).
But the spending …
Wisconsin incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold is bucking the trend and running a straight-up pro-health care reform spot. The ad itself is not all that remarkable, but it stands out in a year when Democrats who voted for reform are trying hard to talk about other issues, while Democrats who voted against it are touting their opposition.
The …
