The Week In Blog: Bling Bling Edition
The latest edition of The Week In Blog is up at BloggingHeads.tv featuring Matt Lewis and myself on blog reaction to Michael Steele’s shaky week, Confederate History Month and the nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Watch it below.
ThinkFast: April 9, 2010
In an interview last night, President Obama responded to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s criticism of his nuclear weapons policy, saying, “the last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues” “If the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I’m […]
In an interview last night, President Obama responded to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s criticism of his nuclear weapons policy, saying, “the last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues” “If the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin,” said Obama.
“Anger over the health-care overhaul has led to a nearly threefold increase in recent months in the number of serious threats against members of Congress.” Federal lawmakers reported “42 threats in the first three months of this year, compared with 15 in last three months of 2009.” According to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, “[n]early all of the recent threats appear to come from opponents of the health-care overhaul.”
The operator of the Upper Big Branch Mine-South, where an explosion killed 25 miners this week, “was warned by federal officials just over two years ago that it could be cited for having a ‘pattern of violations,’ which would have allowed far stricter federal oversight of the mine. But the mine escaped the stepped-up enforcement even though it continued to amass violations.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his plans to attend a nuclear nonproliferation summit in Washington next week reportedly fearing “that Muslim states were planning on using the occasion to raise the question of Israel’s nuclear arsenal.” Israel refuses to discuss whether or not it has a nuclear weapons program and will not join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Two Republican National Committee (RNC) members from North Carolina have called on Chairman Michael Steele to resign. The state’s chairman called for Steele to step down yesterday, and now RNC member Dr. Ada Fisher is as well, saying, “Leadership demands that when something is fundamentally wrong, we must stand up to it.”
In a “signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee” former Colin Powell Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson said the Bush administration “knew [some] Guantánamo prisoners were innocent” but refused to release them based on political reasons. “He had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees were innocent,” Wilkerson asserts of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) plans to announce his retirement today, Democrats briefed on his decision said.” Stupak led a pro-life group of Democrats during the health care debate, but “hinted” that he might retire “in a letter to constituents on Wednesday.”
A large coalition of civil liberties groups has sent a letter to Congress urging members to vote against closing the Guantánamo Bay prison camps unless the Obama administration alters its internment policies. The groups, which include the ACLU and the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, object to the administration’s right to detain people indefinitely without trial, among other things.
The number of improvised explosive devises in Afghanistan has doubled in the past year, “prompting U.S. officials to rush billions of dollars of new protective gear to troops and double the number of road-clearing teams.” The plan “follows Pentagon warnings of an increase in casualties in the months to come.”
And finally: “I want to get on the Metro,” First Lady Michelle Obama tells Conde Nast Traveler, commenting on all the normal D.C. activities she wishes she could do.
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Pending midterm elections add political for friction to court nomination
No matter whom President Obama puts forward as his next Supreme Court nominee, the White House is anticipating a fight within the sharply divided Senate, one made even more fractious by election-year politics.
Palin fires up GOP on Obama, midterm elections at annual conference
NEW ORLEANS — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin captivated a crowd of more than 3,000 Republican Party activists here Friday with a speech featuring the same blend of folksiness and anti-Obama fire that has made her an icon within the grass-roots “tea party” movement.
Mines avoid crackdowns by challenging safety citations
A surge in the number of challenges to mine safety citations has clogged a federal appeals process, allowing 32 coal mines to avoid tougher enforcement measures last year, government safety officials said Friday.
Judge: Cops Covered Up Katrina Shootings
A New Orleans police officer who fired his gun at civilians on the Danziger Bridge a week after Hurricane Katrina pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, offering a chilling account of what transpired on the bridge that day in 2005. Michael Hunter, 33, entered a guilty plea. Two investigators have confessed to playing roles in a wide-ranging cover-up of the police shooting, which injured four unarmed civilians and left two men dead. “I don’t think you can listen to that account without being sickened by the raw brutality of the shooting and the craven lawlessness of the cover-up,” said U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance.
Jon Stewart’s Not Buying What the Vatican’s Selling
As allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members continue to challenge the church, the Vatican, according to a visibly agitated Jon Stewart, has failed to respond appropriately, instead adopting a victim stance with the Western media as its persecutor. Quick—cue the kitten footage!
As allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members continue to challenge the church, the Vatican, according to a visibly agitated Jon Stewart, has failed to respond appropriately, instead adopting a victim stance with the Western media as its persecutor. Quick—cue the kitten footage!
C Street House Used Interns As Servants, Author Tells Rachel Maddow (VIDEO)
The C Street house is a $1.8 million Washington D.C. residence occupied by Congressional members of a religious organization known as The Family. After being…
Amnesty International: Hurricane Katrina Victims Had Human Rights Violated
NEW ORLEANS — Amnesty International says the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states have consistently violated the human rights of hurricane victims since Hurricane Katrina…
Republican Leadership Conference 2010: No Mention Of Hurricane Katrina As GOP Meets In New Orleans
Five years after President Bush’s failed response to a natural disaster in New Orleans deeply damaged his party’s credibility and helped sweep them from power,…
U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty: Republicans Expected To Support Obama Deal
WASHINGTON — Despite near gridlock in the Senate, Republicans were expected to swing behind a new arms control treaty with Russia that President Barack Obama…
Rove rehashes tired claim that health care bill “only appears to be affordable on paper”
In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove advanced the claim that the health care legislation “only appears to be affordable on paper because it includes 10 years worth of revenue from huge tax increases and gigantic Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending.” But, in fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Senate bill — which the House passed — will not only reduce budget deficits through 2019 but will continue to reduce deficits in the following decade.
From Rove’s April 8 Wall Street Journal column:
The administration’s difficulties in defending the stimulus may be why the president challenged Republicans who want to repeal, replace and reform ObamaCare to “go for it.” Mr. Obama seems to be wagering that Democrats will be better off in the midterm elections talking about health care than the economy. That, at least, has a chance of exciting the party’s left-wing base. Focusing on the economy will likely depress turnout among independents and centrist Democrats.
But by big margins Obama-Care is unpopular and Americans distrust the administration’s claims that its new entitlement program is affordable and “won’t add a dime to the deficit,” as Mr. Obama relentlessly repeated during its passage through Congress.
It won’t only add a single dime to the deficit; it will add zillions of them. ObamaCare only appears to be affordable on paper because it includes 10 years worth of revenue from huge tax increases and gigantic Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending. What’s more, 82% of the $434 billion expansion of Medicaid and 84% of the $466 billion in subsidies for insurance companies are spent between 2016 and 2019, after Mr. Obama would leave office (even if he serves a second term).
CBO: Health care legislation yields “a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion” over 10 years. On March 20, CBO released an estimate of the effect of the combined effect of the Senate bill and reconciliation proposal on the federal budget. It found:
CBO and JCT estimate that enacting both pieces of legislation — H.R. 3590 and the reconciliation proposal — would produce a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion over the 2010-2019 period as result of changes in direct spending and revenues.
CBO: Over second 10 years, reconciliation bill would save “around one-half percent of GDP.” CBO also estimated savings for the decade following the 2010-2019 period:
Therefore, CBO has developed a rough outlook for the decade following the 2010-2019 period by grouping the elements of the legislation into broad categories and (together with JCT) assessing the rate at which the budgetary impact of each of those broad categories is likely to increase over time.
[…]
Using this analytic approach, CBO estimated that enacting H.R. 3590, as passed by the Senate, would reduce federal budget deficits over the ensuing decade relative to those projected under current law — with a total effect during that decade in a broad range between onequarter percent and one-half percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
[…]
Reflecting the changes made by the reconciliation proposal, the combined effect of enacting H.R. 3590 and the reconciliation proposal would also be to reduce federal budget deficits over the ensuing decade relative to those projected under current law — with a total effect during that decade in a broad range around one-half percent of GDP. The incremental effect of enacting the reconciliation bill (over and above the effect of enacting H.R. 3590 by itself) would thus be to further reduce federal budget deficits in that decade, with an effect in a broad range between zero and one-quarter percent of GDP.
Krugman: Claim that the bill “front-loads revenues and backloads spending” is a “lie” In a March 27 New York Times blog post, Paul Krugman responded to former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s claim that health care reform legislation is filled with “gimmicks” designed to make the legislation appear to reduce the deficit. Krugman wrote:
OK, I finally got around to reading Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s op-ed on health care reform. It’s much worse than I thought; time to scratch Holtz-Eakin off my shrinking list of reasonable, reasonably honest conservatives.
How bad is it? Holtz-Eakin declares that
Gimmick No. 1 is the way the bill front-loads revenues and backloads spending. That is, the taxes and fees it calls for are set to begin immediately, but its new subsidies would be deferred so that the first 10 years of revenue would be used to pay for only 6 years of spending.
I think that’s what is technically known as a “lie”. Holtz-Eakin, of all people, knows how to read a CBO report. So he’s perfectly capable of looking at the actual report (pdf) and seeing that the revenues, like the costs, are minimal for the first four years. Here’s the chart:
[…]
His implication that there’s funny business going on is totally false, and he knows it.
Wait, it gets worse: Holtz-Eakin implies that there are hidden, delayed costs:
Consider, too, the fate of the $70 billion in premiums expected to be raised in the first 10 years for the legislation’s new long-term health care insurance program. This money is counted as deficit reduction, but the benefits it is intended to finance are assumed not to materialize in the first 10 years, so they appear nowhere in the cost of the legislation.
Claims that the plan is window-dressed to look good in its first decade only to go sour later might sound plausible — except for the fact that the CBO projects bigger deficit-reduction in the second decade of the reform than in the first decade, something that wouldn’t happen if lots of costs were being hidden by being pushed off into the future.
That said, we do learn something important from Holtz-Eakin’s article. If this is the best critique a conservative budget wonk can come up with — if deliberately misrepresenting how the legislation works is the only way to make it seem irresponsible — then the bill must be pretty sound in fiscal terms.
New Orleans Cop Explains How Police Gunned Down Unarmed Civilians In Post-Katrina Incident
A former New Orleans police officer has given authorities a shocking account of the killing by police of two unarmed civilians and the wounding of four others on Danziger Bridge in post-Katrina New Orleans.
The GOP’s Young Eagles: ‘If You’ve Got a Little Insecurity Complex, But You’ve Got Money — What A Cool Group To Hang Out With’
A look inside the high-rolling style of the GOP’s Young Eagles.
Spitzer’s Roadmap to Redemption
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s (D) “swift return to the bully pulpit may say as much about us — a scandal-fatigued public’s diminishing expectations of its officials — as it does about Mr. Spitzer’s restless inability to stay gone. And though he professes not to have a specific strategy of image rehabilitation in mind, whatever he is doing may be working,” the New York Times reports.
CBS News analyst Jeff Greenfield notes what distinguishes the former governor’s scandal from the more recent ones, like those of John Edwards, is that Spitzer “took swift responsibility and did penance.”
Said Greenfield: “This was legitimately a private failure. A serious one, that made him no longer able to be governor. If he were trying to talk about moral rearmament, it would be appropriate to say, ‘Hold it.’ But he is talking about how to prevent another financial meltdown, and he’s in a pretty interesting position to talk about that.”
Will Mahoney Make a Comeback?
The Fort Pierce Tribune says former Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL) may challenge Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), the man who sent him back to the private sector in 2008 after Mahoney admitted to “numerous” affairs several weeks before the election.
Said Mahoney: “Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s not, I don’t know, but the district deserves a race, that I know for sure.”
The Hotline: “Rooney likely owes his seat to Mahoney’s late implosion in ‘08. In the weeks before the scandal broke, a GOP poll showed Rooney trailing Mahoney by the high single digits, and the GOPer’s fundraising was lagging. But as the salacious details of Mahoney’s affairs were uncovered, Rooney opened a huge lead, and won an easy 60-40% victory.”
Why the Pope Should Take Responsibility and Meet with Victims of Pedophile Priests
Instead of resigning, the Pope should clear his calendar for the next six months and meet with the countless victims of sexual abuse who had their childhoods stolen.
Instead of resigning, the Pope should clear his calendar for the next six months and meet with the countless victims of sexual abuse who had their childhoods stolen.
Weekly Diaspora: Busting Immigration Myths
Feature by The Media Consortium’s Immigration Blogger, with links to the week’s best independent, progressive reporting about immigration.
Feature by The Media Consortium's Immigration Blogger, with links to the week's best independent, progressive reporting about immigration.
Your Guide to National Nuke Policy History Month
Busy times indeed for US nuclear weapons policy makers. The administration today released the first Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) in eight years (and the first ever to be published as an unclassified document). On Thursday, President Obama and Russian President…
United States – Nuclear weapon – North Korea – Warfare and Conflict – New START
Making The One State Solution Inevitable
Other than screaming by the right, there does not seem to be any significant aftermath to President Obama’s decision to oppose Israeli settlement expansion. The Israeli government is simply ignoring Obama’s demand to stop building in the Arab neighborhoods in…
Barack Obama – Israel – Israeli government – Israeli settlement – United States
Romney Says Massachusetts Not A Model For Health Reform, After Urging Dems To Use It As Model
Mitt Romney continues to struggle with questions about why he wants to repeal a health care law that is so similar to the health reforms he signed in 2006 as Governor of Massachusetts, particularly since he used to argue that RomneyCare should serve as a template for national reform. In October of 2009, Romney urged […]
Mitt Romney continues to struggle with questions about why he wants to repeal a health care law that is so similar to the health reforms he signed in 2006 as Governor of Massachusetts, particularly since he used to argue that RomneyCare should serve as a template for national reform.
In October of 2009, Romney urged Democrats to use the Massachusetts law as a model to expand coverage. “We have found that we can get everybody insured without breaking the bank and without a public option,” Romney told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta. “Massachusetts is a model for getting everybody insured in a way that doesn’t break the bank, doesn’t put the government in the driver’s seat and allows people to own their own insurance policies and not to have to worry about losing coverage. That’s what Massachusetts did,” he said.
But since federal reformers adopted Massachusetts’ individual mandate and standard benefit provisions (among many others), Romney has found himself in the awkward position of having to defend his biggest legislative accomplishment while simultaneously attacking its federal twin. Yesterday, during a book signing in New Hampshire, Romney said that Massachusetts is not a model for coverage expansion:
“Had they brought the federal bill to my desk when I was governor, I’d have vetoed it,” Romney told an audience of 150 yesterday at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester…”We solved a problem in the state with a state answer,” Romney said. “We didn’t have the federal government come in and intrude on the rights of states.”…Romney said the federal government created its plan without learning from Massachusetts or any other state. “It shouldn’t have been put in place without experimentation,” Romney said.
Incidentally, Romney used the 2009 interview (at that point, he was too focused on criticizing the public option to worry about other arguments) to berate Democrats for not using Massachusetts as a model. They did, and now he’s pretending that they didn’t.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
US-Born Cleric Added to CIA Kill List
Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born Muslim cleric, who may be in Yemen, has been added to the CIA’s target list — meaning agents are authorized to kill or capture him — after U.S. intelligence officials concluded that he has taken an operational role in terrorist attacks. The 38-year-old cleric, who was born in New Mexico, is believed to be the first U.S. citizen added to the list since 2001.
An Icon Without a Clue
Tiger Woods is finally getting on with his life, not that Tiger’s life can ever be what it was when he was the unquestioned, untainted, most famous, most admired, richest, greatest athlete of all time. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what he was raised to aspire to.
By Mark Heisler
Tiger Woods is finally getting on with his life, not that Tiger’s life can ever be what it was when he was the unquestioned, untainted, most famous, most admired, richest, greatest athlete of all time. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what he was raised to aspire to.
Janine R. Wedel: Shadow Elite: Warrantless Wiretap Case & Obama: Abuse of Executive Power?
The next few “Shadow Elite” columns will focus on the troubling implications of a steady increase in executive power around the world. This week we’ll…
Scott Southworth, Wisconsin District Attorney, Threatens Arrest For Juneau County Sex-Ed Teachers
A Wisconsin district attorney is urging schools to drop their sex-education programs, warning that the teachers involved could be arrested if they follow a new…
Palin Stanislaus Speech: Leland Yee Calls For Investigation, Proposes New Requirements
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California lawmaker said Wednesday that a state university is breaking the law by failing to disclose correspondence about an upcoming fundraiser…
Charles D. Ellison: Keeping it Redneck
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) attempt to keep it redneck deserves the head scratch, but it’s clearly a move of political expedience. The more interesting…
Obama In Prague: Russia Nuclear Arms Deal Signed With Medvedev
PRAGUE — Reaching anew for peace, President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a treaty to shrink their nations’ nuclear arsenals,…
Fox distorts record of judicial nominee Liu
Fox News’ Bill Hemmer and The Washington Examiner’s Byron York distorted federal appeals court nominee Goodwin Liu’s record to paint him as out of the mainstream, with York suggesting that Liu supports reparations. However, neither York nor Hemmer noted that Liu has widespread support from across the political spectrum, including from former independent counsel Kenneth Starr and Bush administration lawyer John Yoo.
York: Liu “said a number of extraordinary things … about reparations for slavery.” On the April 7 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, York stated:
YORK: Well, Goodwin Liu is a legal superstar, former Rhodes Scholar, former clerk to Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, 39 years old, viewed as a real superstar in Democratic legal circles, is very liberal on all of the social issues. He said a number of extraordinary things about racial preferences, about reparations for slavery, about welfare and about the role of the judiciary in general.
In fact, Liu’s comments on slavery that conservative media have highlighted have been distorted. In suggesting that Liu supports reparations, York echoed Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Fox Nation, and right-wing blogs, who have distorted comments Liu made during a 2008 discussion about the legacy of slavery. In the part of the discussion conservative media have highlighted, Liu did not advocate for reparations. Rather, he stated:
LIU: Then there’s a further issue, which is that maybe there are white families who were not involved as directly or even indirectly with the slave trade, but who still benefited from it. And then there is the whole question, which you put on the table, about people who came to America after, and — you know, like my family — and why is it that this movie speaks to me, you know, so deeply yet?
And so, what I would do, is I think I would draw a distinction between a concept of guilt, which locates accountability in a sort of limited set of wrong-doers, and, on the other hand, a concept of responsibility, which is, I think, a more broad suggestion that all of us, whatever our lineage, whatever our ancestry, whatever our complicity, still have a moral duty to … make things right. And that’s a moral duty that’s incumbent upon everybody who inherits this nation, regardless of whatever the history is.
And I think, you know, to add one more point on top of that, the exercise of that responsibility … necessarily requires the answer to the question: “What are we willing to give up to make things right?” Because it’s gonna require us to give up something, whether it is the seat at Harvard, the seat at Princeton, or is it gonna require us to give up our segregated neighborhoods, our segregated schools? Is it gonna require us to give up our money?
It’s gonna require giving up something, and so until we can have that further conversation of what it is we’re willing to give up, I agree that the reconciliation can’t fully occur.
Later in the discussion, Liu said that “instead of looking for the single national strategy” on racial equality, people should “think about what you can do on a much smaller scale in much smaller communities, around specific problems that people face, whether it’s in their schools, in their workplaces, access to health care, in their housing — whatever it may be”:
LIU: I think for a long time, the — we have been entranced by a certain image of civil rights progress, which is an image that was forged during the 1960s in the wake of Brown versus the Board of Education and in a time when we had all three branches of the government — the national government supportive of a general civil rights agenda. I don’t see that happening in the near future, however 2008 turns out. And so, I’m not sure that we live in a time where we can transplant that model of national leadership to the present day.
Instead, I think I agree with Ruth’s comment that if this conversation is going to happen, it’s gotta happen in much more localized settings around problems of local concerns to people. And that is a — you know, there’s a kind of entropy to that because you can’t completely manage it and you can’t direct it, but since we have, you know, about 100 different funders out there in our audience, I would say that instead of looking for the single national strategy, which is what everybody always looks for, think about what you can do on a much smaller scale in much smaller communities, around specific problems that people face, whether it’s in their schools, in their workplaces, access to health care, in their housing — whatever it may be — because unless it’s framed around a specific problem, the conversation will just be that: conversation.
York: “A number of Republicans suspect that [Liu] is trying to hide something.” While discussing Liu’s nomination, Hemmer noted opposition to the nomination from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stating that “all seven Republican members of that committee, on the Judiciary Committee, sign[ed] a letter that Liu failed to disclose more than 100 of his speeches to the committee.” York stated that “a number of Republicans suspect that he is trying to hide something, because so many times, he has expressed opinions that are really pretty far on the liberal side of the spectrum.” Neither Hemmer nor York, however, mentioned that Liu has support from a number of conservatives.
Starr: Liu “is exceptionally well-qualified to serve on the court of appeals.” Starr, who investigated former President Bill Clinton, co-signed a March 19 letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that read: “[I]t is our privilege to speak to his qualifications and character, and to urge favorable action on his nomination.” The letter continued: “Goodwin is a person of great intellect, accomplishment, and integrity, and he is exceptionally well-qualified to serve on the court of appeals.”
Yoo: “[F]or a Democratic nominee, he’s a very good choice.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Yoo — the Bush administration lawyer who authored the infamous torture memos — said of Liu’s nomination: “[H]e’s not someone a Republican president would pick, but for a Democratic nominee, he’s a very good choice.”
Bolick on Liu: “I strongly support his nomination.” In a letter to Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) about Liu’s nomination to the Ninth Circuit, Goldwater Institute director Clint Bolick wrote: “Although Prof. Liu and I differ on some issues, I strongly support his nomination.” Bolick continued: “Having reviewed several of his academic writings, I find Prof. Liu to exhibit fresh, independent thinking and intellectual honesty. He clearly possesses the scholarly credentials and experience to serve with distinction on this important court.”
Guthrie: “More than an ideologue, I think he’s a pragmatist.” The Oakland Tribune reported that Liu has also received support from James Guthrie, education policy studies director at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas. According to the Tribune, Liu and Guthrie served together on a task force on school finance. The article reported that Guthrie said: “I suppose in many ways we were ideologically opposed but not on this. … On this one issue of national citizenship and using it for leverage for a national system of finance, he was really my partner on that, we worked hard together on it and I liked him. … More than an ideologue, I think he’s a pragmatist.”
Wikileaks: Video Shows ‘Murder’ Of Iraqis By U.S. Helicopters (VIDEO)
The group Wikileaks has released a video that it describes as showing “the indiscriminate slaying” by U.S. troops “of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad,” including two Reuters employees.
Abramoff Scandal Figure Pleads Guilty To Hiding Gifts On Disclosure
Former aide to Dick Armey and former Bush Labor Department official Horace Cooper plead guilty today to falsifying a disclosure report after accepting gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2003.
Corbett Leads for Pennsylvania Governor
A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania finds Tom Corbett (R) ahead of each of all three top Democratic contenders for governor by double digits.
However, the survey also finds that Corbett is by far the best known of the contenders and that a majority “don’t know enough” about the various Democrats running.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “Once the primary is over and the Democrats have a candidate, presumably he will be able to introduce himself to the larger electorate and we’ll get a better idea of how the race actually stands. Corbett is certainly in the enviable position but the structure of the race will become clearer when he gets into a one-on-one comparison.”
Obama Signs Historic Treaty to Reduce Nuclear Weapons
President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitri A. Medvedev, signed a historic treaty in Prague today to trim their strategic nuclear arsenals to their lowest levels in half a century, the New York Times reports.
“The treaty caps a turnaround in relations with Moscow that hit bottom in August 2008 during the war between Russia and its tiny southern neighbor, Georgia. When he arrived in office, Mr. Obama made restoring the relationship a priority, a goal that coincided with his vision expressed here a year ago of eventually ridding the world of nuclear weapons.”
The Washington Post notes Obama’s trip to Prague “is designed to set the stage for further efforts by the president to argue for reductions in the spread of nuclear weapons around the globe.”
Toomey Regains Lead in Pennsylvania
A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania finds Pat Toomey (R) has moved ahead of Sen. Arlen Specter (D) in a seesaw race for U.S. Senate, 46% to 41%.
Just a month ago, Specter held a seven point lead. The two men have swapped the lead by small margins since last fall.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “A Toomey-Specter race could continue swinging back and forth until November because most voters won’t begin to focus on it until after Labor Day. On paper, Sen. Specter is vulnerable in the general election because only 36 percent of voters say he deserves another term. But Toomey is so little known that the electorate is torn which way to go.”
How TV Superchef Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Revolution’ Flunked out
After two months, kids hated the new meals, milk consumption plummeted, and many students dropped out of the school lunch program altogether.
After two months, kids hated the new meals, milk consumption plummeted, and many students dropped out of the school lunch program altogether.
Immigration Agents Are Going Rogue
Scandal over ICE-issued deportation quotas for field officers, calling into question whether Obama is truly focused on criminals and abusive employers.
Scandal over ICE-issued deportation quotas for field officers, calling into question whether Obama is truly focused on criminals and abusive employers.
The Tea Parties: Built on Fear, Violence and Race Resentment
Racism and xenophobia have been central to the Tea Party movement from the start; while not all of them are racist, they swim in a sea of white racial resentment.
Racism and xenophobia have been central to the Tea Party movement from the start; while not all of them are racist, they swim in a sea of white racial resentment.