Senate health-care bill would still leave millions uninsured Even as Democrats seek the biggest expansion of health coverage in decades, as many as 23 million people could still be without insurance by 2018, illustrating the complexity of achieving the long-held Democratic goal of universal health care.
Before vote, some senators knew of testimony error by TSA nominee Southers Democratic senators rallied around President Obama’s pick to head the Transportation Security Administration on Friday as new details emerged indicating that key lawmakers already knew when they voted in November to advance his nomination that he had mischaracterized a personal incident in his…
Politically charged atmosphere makes it harder for presidents on vacation KAILUA, HAWAII — Before heading to a luau on Wednesday, President Obama did something much more somber, his aides said: He called CIA Director Leon Panetta to discuss the deaths of seven agency officers in a suicide attack in Afghanistan.
Eclectic bunch of donors — near, far, left, even right — gave to Clinton group Foreign governments, longtime Democratic fundraisers, entertainers and thousands of individuals gave money to former president Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation in 2009, according to a list of donors the foundation released Friday under an agreement with President Obama to prevent the appearan…
In hiring new lobbyists, GM shows that it’s playing the Beltway game In naming new leaders to General Motors’ lobbying office in Washington on Wednesday, company chairman and chief executive Edward E. Whitacre Jr. tacitly underscored the importance of government policies to the recovery of the nation’s largest automaker, according to those who follow the industry.
Federal Judge Dismisses Charges in Blackwater Shooting Case A federal judge let five Blackwater Worldwide security contractors off the hook Thursday, dropping all charges against them in a 2007 case in which 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and 20 wounded during a Baghdad shooting. The Justice Department wasn’t thrilled with this outcome, and a DoJ spokesman told The Washington Post that his colleagues are “still in the process of reviewing the opinion and considering our options.” —KA The Washington Post: In a 90-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled that the government violated the guards’ rights by using their immunized statements to help the investigation. The ruling comes after a lengthy set of hearings that examined whether federal prosecutors and agents improperly used such statements that the guards gave to State Department investigators following the shooting on Sept. 16, 2007. “The explanations offered by prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions and persuade the court that they did not use the defendants’ compelled testimony were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility,” Urbina wrote. […] The five guards—Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Donald Ball—are charged with voluntary manslaughter and weapons violations in the killing of 14 civilians and the wounding of 20 others. Read more
A federal judge let five Blackwater Worldwide security contractors off the hook Thursday, dropping all charges against them in a 2007 case in which 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and 20 wounded during a Baghdad shooting. The Justice Department wasn’t thrilled with this outcome, and a DoJ spokesman told The Washington Post that his colleagues are “still in the process of reviewing the opinion and considering our options.”? —KA
The Washington Post:
In a 90-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled that the government violated the guards’ rights by using their immunized statements to help the investigation. The ruling comes after a lengthy set of hearings that examined whether federal prosecutors and agents improperly used such statements that the guards gave to State Department investigators following the shooting on Sept. 16, 2007.
“The explanations offered by prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions and persuade the court that they did not use the defendants’ compelled testimony were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility,” Urbina wrote.
[…] The five guards—Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Donald Ball—are charged with voluntary manslaughter and weapons violations in the killing of 14 civilians and the wounding of 20 others.
Death of the Superdelegate? A group of Democrats convened by Barack Obama has recommended that the Democratic Party eliminate the influence of “superdelegates,” who have had an unrestricted vote in the nomination process because they were not selected based on the primaries or caucuses. —JCL The Washington Post: Eighteen months removed from a protracted presidential primary fight, a group of Democrats gathered by President Obama has recommended that the party effectively eliminate the influence of so-called superdelegates by redefining their voting power. The Democratic Change Commission, which was convened last August to examine the nominating process, is recommending that superdelegates—also known as unpledged delegates—be required to vote along with the electoral majority of their state. “We need to show deference to what the party members in our state have done,” said Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of the co-chairmen of the commission. Read more
A group of Democrats convened by Barack Obama has recommended that the Democratic Party eliminate the influence of “superdelegates,” who have had an unrestricted vote in the nomination process because they were not selected based on the primaries or caucuses. ? —JCL
The Washington Post:
Eighteen months removed from a protracted presidential primary fight, a group of Democrats gathered by President Obama has recommended that the party effectively eliminate the influence of so-called superdelegates by redefining their voting power.
The Democratic Change Commission, which was convened last August to examine the nominating process, is recommending that superdelegates—also known as unpledged delegates—be required to vote along with the electoral majority of their state.
“We need to show deference to what the party members in our state have done,” said Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of the co-chairmen of the commission.
Stephen Gyllenhaal: Peace On Earth It’s not going to happen here in the United States – peace – not in this coming year, not in my lifetime. I have to…
Blackwater Shooting Charges All Dismissed By Judge WASHINGTON — A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad…
The Tattlesnake – Odd Quotes at Year’s End Edition Random blips on the mental radar selected randomly, with commentary in brackets: “One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.” – George W. Bush, Jan. 12, 2009. [Translation to English from Bushspeak: ‘I used your money […]
There has been a tidal shift in politics and on Marijuana laws in America, from Obama lightening up on pot prosecutions to the recognition of cancer prevention properties.
Kodak, Bill Gates And Efficient Markets I am just back from my summer holidays on the New South Wales South Coast. To my (mostly) Northern Hemisphere readers I should boast about warm water, perfect waves, beaches in national parks with only one or two pairs of…
Building Single Payer Systems in the States with the Senate Bill One reason I’m less negative on the Senate bill than some is that I know states will continue to build on its framework with improvements — and most of those states need just majority vote in normally apportioned chambers, so…
Limbaugh Rushed To Honolulu Hospital That Gave Rise To ?Birther? Conspiracy Conservative radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital yesterday with chest pains. After paramedics arrived and treated him at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, Limbaugh was transferred to Queen’s Medical Center where he reportedly arrived in “serious condition.” KHON2 reports: Sources say the 58 year old [Limbaugh] was suffering chest […]
Conservative radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital yesterday with chest pains. After paramedics arrived and treated him at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, Limbaugh was transferred to Queen’s Medical Center where he reportedly arrived in “serious condition.” KHON2 reports:
Sources say the 58 year old [Limbaugh] was suffering chest pains before an ambulance arrived at the hotel.
Honolulu’s Emergency Services Department confirmed a male fitting Limbaugh’s description was taken from the hotel in serious condition.
As an avid golfer Limbaugh travels to Hawaii just about every year and earlier this week was seen in Kona on the Big Island and at the Waialae Country Club on Oahu.
While unfortunate, Limbaugh’s hospital visit is rife with irony. The ailing radio show host was sent to the same medical center that a United Press International reporter misidentified in an article published in 2008 as the facility in which President Obama was born. Though the error was corrected to accurately indicate that Obama was born in the Kapi’olani Medical Center, the mistake fueled “birther” conspiracy theories that Limbaugh then dedicated significant airtime to promoting. Since then, Limbaugh has gone as far to state that Hawaii “morphed into Kenya one day in 1961 [the year Obama was born] and reverted back to Hawaii the next day.”
Meanwhile, some of Limbaugh’s right-wing colleagues have spent the past week slamming Obama for vacationing in Hawaii over the holidays, which “to many Americans seems like a foreign place.” Last month, Limbaugh was voted the nation’s “most influential conservative voice.”
Fox News Host Promotes Newt?s Call For Profiling: ?Profile Them! What?s Wrong With That?? Yesterday, Newt Gingrich joined the right wing’s hysteric attacks on President Obama regarding Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner over Detroit, calling for more “profiling” and “discrimination” and saying that the Obama administration is more interested in “protecting the rights of terrorists” than “protecting the lives of Americans.” This morning […]
Yesterday, Newt Gingrich joined the right wing’s hysteric attacks on President Obama regarding Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner over Detroit, calling for more “profiling” and “discrimination” and saying that the Obama administration is more interested in “protecting the rights of terrorists” than “protecting the lives of Americans.”
This morning on Fox News, Gingrich tried to clarify his comments. “We have to be prepared to profile based on behavior, not ethnic profiling, not racial profiling but look at people’s behavior,” he said. Later, host Alisyn Camerota signed on to and promoted Gingrich’s plan:
CAMEROTA: I haven’t heard a single person talking about any kind of racial profiling. It doesn’t say “Muslim” on a passport. […] But anybody who travels all the time recognizes how ludicrous it is to frisk your grandmother. She’s not the risk. But somebody who’s let say been in Yemen in the past year. I’d say profile them. Profile them! What’s wrong with that?
Co-host Dave Briggs asked, “Should we body scan everyone at the airports?” “I’d say yes,” he said answering his own question, adding, “If it keeps me and my family safe, go ahead an invade their privacy.” Watch it:
Yesterday on NPR, even former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said profiling is a bad idea, calling it foolish, particularly in Abdulmutallab’s case:
CHERTOFF: I’m going to argue that this case illustrates the danger and the foolishness of profiling because people’s conception of what a potential terrorist looks like often doesn’t match reality. In this case we had a Nigerian, for example, not a person from the Middle East or from South Asia. If you look at the airline plot of 2006, two of the plotters were a married couple that were going to get on a plane with a young baby. The terrorists understand that the more they vary the kind of operative they use, the more likely they’re going to be able to exploit prejudices if we allow those prejudices to guide the way we conduct our investigation.
“I think it’s not only problematic from civil rights’ standpoint, but frankly,” Chertoff said, “I think it winds up not being terribly effective.”
Fighting Over the Squandered Decade E.J. Dionne, The New Republic WASHINGTON — Certain decades shape the country's political life for generations by leaving behind an era to embrace or, at least as often, to scorn.The 1960s were definitely such a decade. The 1930s qualify, and so do the 1980s. But as important as all these periods have been, their significance may be dwarfed by the reckless and squandered decade that is, mercifully, ending. Receive news alertsI'm afraid that the past 10 years will be seen as a time when the United States badly lost its way by using our military power carelessly, misunderstanding the real challenges to our…
This ‘System’ Is Going to Bring You Health Care Emmett Tyrrell, TAS WASHINGTON — A couple of weeks ago on Oprah Winfrey's “White House Christmas Special,” our first postmodern president, Barack Obama, gave himself a “good, solid B-plus” for his performance over the past 11 months. Then he added that if his healthcare reform passes he will grant himself an A-. This is false humility. Actually he is so proud of the government's impending nationalization of healthcare that when it comes he will grant himself an A, possibly an A+. Right now, however, he is under fire for his inert response to that Nigerian terrorist's…
Eight CIA Agents Reportedly Killed in Afghanistan Eight CIA officers died after a suicide bomber set off an explosive vest at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, marking the deadliest attack on U.S. intelligence officials since the early ’80s, according to the Los Angeles Times. That same day, a Canadian journalist, Michelle Lang of the Calgary Herald, was killed along with four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, according to press reports. Los Angeles Times: The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province, an area near the border with Pakistan that is a hotbed of insurgent activity. It also injured an undisclosed number of civilians, the officials said. No military personnel from U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were killed or injured, they said. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the CIA had a major presence at the base, in part because of the strategic location. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted early Thursday on its Pashtu-language website. The casualties highlight the increasingly important role the CIA is playing in Afghanistan, and come as the United States is embarking on a major buildup of its civilian workforce that parallels an increase in troop strength. […] A former U.S. intelligence official knowledgeable about Wednesday’s bombing said it had killed more CIA personnel than any attack since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Before Wednesday’s attack, four CIA operatives had been killed in Afghanistan, the former official said. Read more
Eight CIA officers died after a suicide bomber set off an explosive vest at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, marking the deadliest attack on U.S. intelligence officials since the early ’80s, according to the Los Angeles Times. That same day, a Canadian journalist, Michelle Lang of the Calgary Herald, was killed along with four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, according to press reports.
Los Angeles Times:
The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province, an area near the border with Pakistan that is a hotbed of insurgent activity. It also injured an undisclosed number of civilians, the officials said. No military personnel from U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were killed or injured, they said.
A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the CIA had a major presence at the base, in part because of the strategic location. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted early Thursday on its Pashtu-language website.
The casualties highlight the increasingly important role the CIA is playing in Afghanistan, and come as the United States is embarking on a major buildup of its civilian workforce that parallels an increase in troop strength.
[…] A former U.S. intelligence official knowledgeable about Wednesday’s bombing said it had killed more CIA personnel than any attack since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Before Wednesday’s attack, four CIA operatives had been killed in Afghanistan, the former official said.
Chris Weigant: We Need More Parties While that may seem a rather redundant headline the day before a world-wide party is scheduled, it was actually less provocative than my original concept…
REVEALED: See Going Rogue Event ‘Banned List’ Drawn Up By Todd Palin We’ve just gotten our hands on the so-called “banned list” that was responsible for two journalists getting booted from a Sarah Palin book event in Wasilla last week. And we’ve got new details that shed light on Todd Palin’s role as his wife’s chief enforcer.
Feds Subpoena Bloggers For Posting TSA Security Memo Federal agents issued subpoenas to two bloggers Tuesday, in an effort to find out who leaked them a memo on the agency’s enhanced security procedures in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terror attack.
The Tea Party Express is trying to capitalize on the Tea Party movement for crass and self-serving political purposes — mainly as a fundraising machine for Republican causes.
The Global War on Stealth Underwear There is no "war" against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify.
There is no "war" against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify.
Jimmy Carter’s Ridiculous Apology For Criticizing The Occupation Anyone who doubts that criticizing Israeli policies will endanger anyone’s political prospects need only take note of former President Carter’s apology to the pro-Israel community for criticizing the Israeli occupation. No, Carter is not worried about his own prospects but…
After Health Care Victory, Obama Turns To The Middle East As Josh reminds us up front, foreign and domestic policy are two sides of the same coin which is why the Israeli right has been hoping President Obama’s health reform bill would crash and burn. A weakened American President is…
It’s Obama’s Fault! GOP Ready To Pounce On Obama When Terrorists Hit There is one downside to having a Democratic President. If any act of terrorism occurs during his term, the President will be blamed. It does not work that way when a Republican is in the White House. If the country…
Madden defends GOP?s hypocritical attacks: Obama?s in Hawaii, which ?seems like a foreign place.? On CNN this morning, host John Roberts asked former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden about the hypocritical “heat for this president from the Republicans” regarding the Obama administration’s response to the attempted Christmas day terrorist attack. Madden claimed that the two reasons Republicans were launching attacks were that Obama “has very little political capital” on terrorism […]
On CNN this morning, host John Roberts asked former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden about the hypocritical “heat for this president from the Republicans” regarding the Obama administration’s response to the attempted Christmas day terrorist attack. Madden claimed that the two reasons Republicans were launching attacks were that Obama “has very little political capital” on terrorism and that he is “on vacation in Hawaii” at the moment. Madden added that “Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place“:
MADDEN: President Obama right now has suffered very greatly in the last few months because of the fight over health care, and he has very little political capital right now. So Republicans feel it is in vogue to criticize this president.
And then lastly, you have to also remember the fact that the president being on vacation in Hawaii, it’s much different than being in Texas. Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place. And I think those images, the optics, hurt President Obama very badly.
Madden backtracked in his criticism when both Roberts and guest James Carville ridiculed his comment by pointing out that Hawaii is not only a state, but Obama’s home state. “I absolutely agree he’s entitled to a vacation,” said Madden. “But to many Americans, Hawaii seems like this very tropical place, and the optics of many of these reporters reporting about the president’s response with surfers behind them is much different.” Watch it:
Obama declares that ?no information may remain classified indefinitely.? Yesterday, President Obama issued an executive order on classified national security information that declared that “No information may remain classified indefinitely.” The order is “part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch’s system for protecting classified national security information,” which includes overturning a rule put in place by Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, […]
Yesterday, President Obama issued an executive order on classified national security information that declared that “No information may remain classified indefinitely.” The order is “part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch’s system for protecting classified national security information,” which includes overturning a rule put in place by Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, that made it easier for documents to remain classified:
Moreover, Mr. Obama eliminated a rule put in place by former President George W. Bush in 2003 that allowed the leader of the intelligence community to veto decisions by an interagency panel to declassify information. Instead, spy agencies who object to such a decision will have to appeal to the president.
Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, was cautiously optimistic about Obama’s move, saying that while it depended on the implementation, “there are some real innovations here” that represent “a major step forward” towards rolling back government secrecy. Obama’s establishment of new National Declassification Center at the National Archives is expected to speed the declassification of “more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents” that are currently backlogged.
U.N. financial nominee Zeitlin withdraws amid problems with his Indian firm UNITED NATIONS — President Obama’s nominee to oversee financial reform at the United Nations has withdrawn his name from consideration for the job, several weeks after revelations that a wireless company he owns in India faced legal and financial troubles, according to U.S. officials.
Rep. Murtha’s earmarks lead to fewer jobs than promised FORD CITY, PA. — In 2005, Rep. John P. Murtha announced here that a technology firm was moving into an abandoned plate glass factory. Best of all, he promised, the new firm would generate 140 jobs.
Key positions vacant as nominees await Senate confirmation Before they left town on Christmas Eve, senators confirmed roughly three dozen of President Obama’s nominees, rejected six others and left more than five dozen waiting until late January at the earliest for an up or down vote.
Red Flags Waved — And Ignored Ruth Marcus, Washington Post The more I think about the Christmas all-but-bombing, the angrier I get. At the multiple failures that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to get on the plane with explosives sewn inside his underwear. And at the Obama administration's initial, everything's-fine-everybody-move-right-along reaction.
Dick Cheney is a Coward Steve Benen, Washington Monthly DICK THE COWARD…. It was only a matter of time before Dick Cheney decided to trash the president again.”As I've watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won't be at war.”Let's review a few pesky details. First, it was Cheney's administration that released some of the alleged terrorists who plotted the attack into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” in…
The Global War on Stealth Underwear There is no “war” against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify. Not if by war one means doing the obvious and checking a highly suspicious air traveler’s underwear to see if explosives have been sewn in.
By Robert Scheer
There is no “war” against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify. Not if by war one means doing the obvious and checking a highly suspicious air traveler’s underwear to see if explosives have been sewn in.
How To ‘Fix’ The Sunday Morning Shows Jay Rosen, saints preserve him, has posted a “Simple Fix For The Messed Up Sunday Shows”. Since Sunday morning is the time when I personally…
Tom Andrews: Terrorism Is A Bipartisan Issue Events of the last few days have demonstrated that there are some fundamentals that you can count on: First, there are demented extremists who are…
Conservative radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh was 
