The things a gal has to do to save America. RELATED: Scissor Sheldon RELATED: A decade ago gambling magnate and leading Republican donor Sheldon Adelson looked at a desolate spit of land in Macau and imagined a glittering strip of casinos, hotels and malls. Where competitors saw obstacles, including Macau’s hostility to outsiders and historic links to Chinese organized crime, Adelson envisaged a chance to make billions. Adelson pushed his chips to the center of the table, keeping his nerve even as his company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in late 2008. The Macau bet paid off, propelling Adelson […]
THE BAIN MUTINY: Money Changes Everything
[Artwork by MEATHEAD] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Mayor Cory Booker to the long list of political stand-ins for both President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney who’ve veered wildly off message in a presidential contest notable for its attention-grabbing gaffes. An Obama backer, Booker forced the president’s campaign into damage-control mode over the weekend when he called its attack on Romney’s tenure at a private equity firm “nauseating.” It didn’t take long for Republicans to highlight the comment and for the Democratic mayor to try to clean up the mess he caused by releasing a YouTube video in which he said it […]
PAUL KRUGMAN: Man Up, Mr. President
PAUL KRUGMAN: In fact, Republicans will surely be emboldened by the way Mr. Obama keeps folding in the face of their threats. He surrendered last December, extending all the Bush tax cuts; he surrendered in the spring when they threatened to shut down the government; and he has now surrendered on a grand scale to raw extortion over the debt ceiling. Maybe it’s just me, but I see a pattern here. Did the president have any alternative this time around? Yes. First of all, he could and should have demanded an increase in the debt ceiling back in December. When […]
WORTH REPEATING: Dead Man Talking
NEW YORK TIMES: “[Richard Holbrooke] thought that this could become Obama’s Vietnam,” Marton recalled. “Some of the conversations in the Situation Room reminded him of conversations in the Johnson White House. When he raised that, Obama didn’t want to hear it.” Because he was fiercely loyal to his friend Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, Holbrooke bit his lip and kept quiet in public. But he died in December, and Marton and some of his friends (me included) believe it’s time to lift the cone of silence and share his private views. […] Holbrooke opposed the military “surge” in […]
SAME AS IT EVER WAS: Obama Cries Uncle On Gitmo
TIME: As expected, Defense Secretary Robert Gates suspended the two-year ban on new action in military commissions for detainees at Guantanamo Bay today, resuming a practice Obama did away with as one of his first acts in office. For background on the tortured arc of Obama’s rightward move on this issue, see the piece I did with Weisskopf here. More recently, Pro-Publica’s Dafna Linzer looked at last year’s deliberations at the White House here. New charges under the commissions are expected in days or weeks, but are not expected to include big name 9/11 detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. MORE […]
FACT CHECK: Who’s Afraid Of Elena Kagan?
[illustration by KERRY WAGHORN] Myth: Kagan banned military recruiters from Harvard Myth: Kagan is “anti-military” Myth: Kagan is “radical” Myth: Kagan’s praise for an Israeli Supreme Court justice shows she’s a radical (NEW) Myth: Kagan’s thesis shows she’s a socialist Myth: Conservatives can credibly argue that Kagan’s personal and political views are relevant to confirmation process Myth: “Kagan Standard” means Kagan must answer questions about issues that will come before the Supreme Court Myth: Kagan’s Goldman Sachs role taints her nomination Myth: Conservative opposition is based on the substance of Kagan’s nomination Myth: Obama used “empathy” standard rather than fealty […]
BREAKING: Obama To Nominate Kagan For SCOTUS
NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the nation’s 112th justice, choosing his own chief advocate before the Supreme Court to join it in ruling on cases critical to his view of the country’s future, Democrats close to the White House said Sunday. After a monthlong search, Mr. Obama informed Ms. Kagan and his advisers on Sunday of his choice to succeed the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. He plans to announce the nomination at 10 a.m. Monday in the East Room of the White House with Ms. Kagan by his side, said the Democrats, […]
DOPE: NJ Weedman Still Crazy After All These Years
TRENTONIAN: Ed “NJ Weedman” Forchion is sparking a new kind of buzz these days, and he’s taking some heat for the way he’s used the likeness of President Obama. Forchion, who at one point or another ran for just about every elected office in New Jersey on a platform of marijuana legalization, is now running a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, and a poster for an upcoming party he’s hosting has gotten him in some hot bong water. Forchion, formerly of Willingboro, is set to host an “Obama One Year in Office Celebration” out in California, and the poster […]
POTUS Makes Health Care Housecall At Arcadia U
President Barack Obama drumming up support for his health care reform legislation at Arcadia University WHITE HOUSE PRESS OFFICE: Leslie Banks introduced the President [at Arcadia University earlier today]. On February 11th, Leslie wrote the President an e-mail expressing her frustration with the cost of health insurance. Leslie is a self-employed, single mother with type 2 diabetes, whose daughter is a sophomore in college at Temple University. In January 2010, Leslie received a notice from her health insurance provider that her plan was being dropped. To keep the same benefits, the premiums for her and her daughter would more than […]
POTUS To Make Monday Housecall At Arcadia Univ.
On the morning of Monday, March 8, 2010 President Obama will visit the Philadelphia area and deliver remarks on health insurance reform at Arcadia University. This event is free and open to the public, however, tickets are required. Tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis on Saturday, March 6 at 3:30 PM in the Hospitality Room of the Kuch Recreation and Athletic Center at Arcadia University. EXHUMING MCCARTHY: Lynn Cheney’s Farenheit 9/11 HUFFINGTON POST: Back in January 2007, Ted Olson — then a lawyer in private practice but previously a lead counsel in Bush v. Gore […]
ANNIVERSARY: The Stimulus Package Turns One
[Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics] POTUS: Millions of jobs had already been lost to the recession before I was sworn into office. Another 800,000 would be lost in the month of January. We’d later learn that our economy had shrunk by an astounding 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, and economists from across the political spectrum warned that if dramatic action was not taken to break the back of the recession, the United States could spiral into another depression. MORE RELATED: Philadelphia and Camden will be sharing $23 million from a federal government to extend, connect and create […]
MESSACHUSSETTS: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
YOINK: Ted and Robert Kennedy at the zoo. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: There is no understating the symbolism or the substance of what happened Tuesday. Malcontent voters in this most Democratic of Democratic states plopped a Republican into the iconic Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat. This is huge. MORE WASHINGTON POST: Massachusetts is among the nation’s most liberal states, and the candidates made it clear that a Brown victory could kill the Democrats’ health care push in the Senate. Democrats now must ask: Did Massachusetts voters register their discontent based on a decent understanding of the complex health care legislation? Or did conservatives […]
HAITI: Give Locally, Act Globally
[photo by Gerald Herbert/AP via THE BIG PICTURE] HAITIAN PROFESSIONALS OF PHILADELPHIA: Many of us are still in a state of shock but we have hope that we can assist Haiti’s relief. As an organization that prides itself in keeping the rich culture of Haiti alive in Philadelphia, the Haitian Professionals of Philadelphia (HPP) send our deepest and most sincere condolences to our Haitian family in our area and around the world. From the generous donation of Blue Star Jets, we have secured a private jumbo jet to transport medical professionals and supplies to Haiti. We are in need of DOCTORS, NURSES […]