BARACK OBAMA: I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace. We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will […]
RIP: Public Option Taken Off Life Support
HUFFINGTON POST: The public health insurance option died on Thursday, December 10, 2009, after a months-long struggle with Senate parliamentary procedure. The time of death was recorded as 11:12 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Its death had been rumored numerous times over the past year, but the public option repeatedly and defiantly battled back. The Senate’s insistence on 60 votes, combined with President Obama’s decision not to intervene on its behalf, eventually proved overwhelming. The public option leaves behind a Medicare buy-in for people aged 55-64, an expansion of Medicaid, a quasi-public option for those under 300 percent of the poverty […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With Your Host, A.P. Ticker
[Video: AP Ticker’s SCRAPPLE NEWS 12.9.2009]
ARMBINDER: An Annotated Takedown Of The Denialist Drivel That Is Sarah Palin’s WaPo Op-Ed
THE ATLANTIC: Once again, the Washington Post has given Sarah Palin the chance to harness herself to the political story of the hour. The former Alaska governor has written an op-ed, published Wednesday, about the “Climate-gate” controversy at East Anglia University. Palin calls on President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate summit because the leaked e-mails allegedly cast significant doubt on the scientific consensus about global warming. With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. By “radical,” Palin means the overwhelming scientific consensus; virtually every […]
Public Option In Critical Condition After Car Crash
PHAWKER: Last night the Public Option crashed its car into a tree and a fire hydrant at the end of its driveway. Reportedly the Public Option was being chased by his wife wielding a golf club, enraged by the Public Option’s extramarital affairs. At last count, 59 U. S. Senators have come forward to say they have been having an affair with the Public Option. So far, the Public Option’s sponsors all say they will continue to offer their unconditional support to the Public Option and his family — of 120 million Americans it would have covered — during this […]
HITCHENS: Guilt By Association Cuts Both Ways
SLATE: The person who has been introducing Palin into the more exalted social and political circles of the capital, and who has already arranged her appearance at the Alfalfa Club, is Fred Malek. Two things about Malek are worth bearing in mind.The first is that he was an important member of the Nixon administration, a senior figure on the Republican National Committee, and the campaign manager for the re-election of George H.W. Bush in 1992. With his Carlyle Group and other corporate connections and his mansion in suburban McLean, Va.,* Malek is almost the prototypical “establishment” Washington insider and consiglieri […]
TOUGH NUT TO CRACK: Harshbarger Report Clears ACORN Of Illegality In ‘Pimp & Hooker’ Gotcha Videos
SEIU: Today, former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger released his report on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN) following an independent and aggressive review of the organization. Mr. Harshbarger deserves thanks for not only having the ability to see past the sensationalized headlines, but for recognizing and reporting on the steps that ACORN had already taken to address management weaknesses it had identified earlier. It is striking that despite the news coverage, Mr. Harshbarger found no pattern of illegal conduct by the staff of ACORN targeted in the ‘sting’ operation, even in cases that looked clear cut from […]
END RUN: White House Threatens To Bypass Congress and Make Global Warming The EPA’s Bitch
WASHINGTON POST: The Obama administration moved closer Monday to issuing regulations on greenhouse gases, a step that would enable it to limit emissions across the economy even if Congress does not pass climate legislation. The move, which coincided with the first day of the international climate summit in Copenhagen, seemed timed to reassure delegates there that the United States is committed to reducing its emissions even if domestic legislation remains bogged down. But it provoked condemnation from key Republicans and from U.S. business groups, which vowed to tie up any regulations in litigation. In Monday’s much-anticipated announcement, the Environmental Protection […]
Ex-Khyber Barkeep Charged in Mumbai Attacks
GUARDIAN: Federal prosecutors accused David Coleman Headley, 49, who lives in Chicago, of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim people, and to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group. The charges come after Headley, also known as Daood Gilani, was accused of involvement in a plot to kill the editor of the Danish paper, Jyllands-Posten, who published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in 2005 which provoked an angry backlash in the Muslim world. Headley is accused of scouting the three locations in Mumbai – the luxury Taj hotel, a railway station and the Jewish […]
HERO OF THE STUPID: Man Claiming To Have Thwarted Hijacking Was Not Even On Flight
ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: It’s a little easier to understand why a Houston man who claimed to have thwarted a potential terrorist attack on a flight leaving Atlanta has not answered repeated requests to tell his story. He was not on the plane, AirTran Airways says. “After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests [legally binding documents] that the individual that allegedly created a first-hand account of events on-board AirTran Airways Flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually on-board the flight,” AirTran said in a statement, which the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first […]
SECRET SERVICE: Obama Assassination Threat Count Down To Disturbing But Acceptable Level
NEW YORK TIMES: The young Marine’s rogue mission, laid out with maps and photographs, was as straightforward as it was chilling. He called it Operation Patriot. The Marine, Kody Brittingham, a 20-year-old lance corporal, wrote that he had taken an oath to “protect against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” In a signed “letter of intent,” tucked away in his barracks at Camp Lejeune, he identified a “domestic enemy” he planned to eliminate last winter: President Obama. The details of this threat, which were revealed at his arraignment hearing in North Carolina, have not previously been reported. Mr. Brittingham pleaded […]
MUST READ: ‘ClimateGate’ Nonsense Debunked
[Artwork by SHEPARD FAIREY] HUFFINGTON POST: A few weeks ago, hackers broke into the emails of one of the Climate Research Unit of The University of East Anglia, and climate skeptics have been having a field day making mountains out of molehills about what the emails contain. The verdict on global warming is in — it’s caused by humans and it is happening and nothing in the emails challenges that. However, with the internet abuzz about what has been labeled “ClimateGate,” we thought we should set the record straight about the rumors, lies and insinuations about what the emails actually […]
MATT TAIBBI: Obama’s Big Sellout
ROLLING STONE: In “Obama’s Big Sellout,” Matt Taibbi argues that President Obama has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway. Rather than keeping his progressive campaign advisers on board, Taibbi says Obama gave key economic positions in the White House to the very people who caused the economic crisis in the first place. Taibbi also points to the ties Obama’s appointees have to one main in particular: Bob Rubin, the former Goldman Sachs co-chairman who served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Click above for Taibbi’s video breakdown of his […]