–Republicans picked up a House seat in Hawaii Saturday, even though 60 percent of the vote went to two other Democratic candidates. It’s the first special election win for the GOP since May of 2008, 11 special elections ago. But it may not mean much, since everything about the race is odd, including the fact that the DCCC pulled out …
Today In Economic Grimness
Jobless claims rise by largest amount in 3 months.
“Although no one expects this volatile series to go in one direction every single week, this is clearly a disappointment,” said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
Paul Krugman speculates that America is becoming “lost decade” Japan.
Will the worst happen? Not
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1,000 Words: BureaucRATS at the White House
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Morning Must Reads: Rolling
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Rand Paul was on ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning to run a bit of damage control. It was kind of brutal. He standoffishly dodged the civil rights questions before shifting to a defense of BP and a critique of the minimum wage. Again, the merits of his small government philosophy …
In the ArenaUncategorized
The New Normal in the Middle East
David Rothkopf has a very good essay in which he details Israel’s failure to understand the changing strategic balance in the Middle East–and, adding on to the argument made by Peter Beinart in the New York Review of Books, the changing perception of Israel among younger (non-evangelical, non-orthodox) Americans.
In the ArenaUncategorized
Iran: two more views
Charles Krauthammer, stuck in the unipolar nineties, blames the Brazil-Turkey nuclear deal with Iran on…wait for it, you’ll really be surprised…the Obama Administration. He uses the occasion to vamp on Obama for what he sees as American weakness across the board and, implicitly, calls for a return to the Bush era when we …
Regulatory Reform Passes the Senate, Now What?
The Senate tonight passed a sweeping overhaul of the rules that govern Wall Street with the aim of better protecting Main Street if the markets were ever to meltdown again. The legislation would greatly empower the Federal Reserve Bank to monitor and oversee financial flows in order to predict and prevent a massive pooling of risk – …
Dennis Blair Departs DNI, The Position Still Poorly Defined
Help Wanted: Director Of National Intelligence
Responsibilities: Oversee a complex network of intelligence agencies in the U.S. government that do not report to you or want to be overseen by you. Deal with seemingly endless bureaucratic infighting, underscored by a rising frequency of threats on the homeland. Testify often before a …
Updated: Financial Regulatory Reform Passes the Senate
Aided by “ayes” from Republicans Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Senate Democrats succeeded in ending debate on financial regulatory reform by a 60-40 vote Thursday afternoon. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold remained in opposition to the procedural motion, hoping to secure more time to consider …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Wearing the Uniform With Pride
I thought I was through with my penguin suit for the year after the White House Correspondents Dinner/Time 100 celebrathon–and good riddance!–but I had to put it on again last night to pay tribute to General Chuck Boyd, who received the Eisenhower Medal from Business Executives for National Security. There were some very moving …
Facebookers Beware (or At Least Aware)
The cover story in the next dead-tree issue of TIME is about Facebook – why it’s scary and taking over the world faster than you can say “status update.” A bit of hyperbole, but the story’s worth a full read. (Check your privacy settings, people.)
It’s true that social networking and the implications of sharing personal …
Re: Seeking A Universal Theory For 2010
Re Michael’s earlier post, pollster Glen Bolger has a slightly different take. Not contra anti-incumbenecy, but in tandem with it, he writes that the likes of Specter, Lincoln and Crist are victims of hyper-partisanship:
The nomination defeats (or major troubles at this point for Lincoln), are politicians who were punished for their
…
In the ArenaUncategorized
More on Rand Paul
The latest–an update from Michael Scherer’s smart post below–is that Rand Paul is now saying that he regrets the appearance with Rachel Maddow, not the ridiculous statements he made in favor of a private business’s ability to discriminate according to race. I suspect that this will be the first of many such disasters for the Tea Party …