You’ve no doubt heard that James O’Keefe, the guy who broke some laws secretly filming ACORN employees, got busted yesterday trying to film some buddies bugging Mary Landrieu’s office. But I’m not as interested, for the moment, in O’Keefe as I am in his alleged accomplice, Robert Flanagan. You see, Flanagan is the son of […]
Thus far today, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and Blache Lincoln have come out against passing health care reform through sidecar reconciliation. Of course that means they’re defending all the corrupt aspects of the Senate bill that proved to be so unpopular in MA, starting with the Cornhusker Kickback (and including the Louisiana Purchase that similarly […]
There’s a lot to say about Obama’s foolish call for a spending freeze in the middle of the Great Recession. But for now, consider the point that Chris Bowers is making: the spending freeze won’t happen. It won’t happen because Congress, whose remaining power in the era of post-Cheney has been reducted to clutching purse […]
Yesterday, GM announced that Ed Whitacre would stay on as CEO, meaning Whitacre had pulled off the same stunt Dick Cheney pulled in 2000 when Cheney searched and searched and searched only to discover he was the best man for the job. “I certainly didn’t come into this with that intention,” Whitacre, 68, told reporters […]
Just wanted to throw two tidbits into the debate on Ben Bernanke’s reconfirmation. First, this quote, which needs no explanation. In the event that Bernanke isn’t confirmed, several sources say, Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn likely would be elevated to acting chair of the U.S. central bank. Bernanke would be entitled to stay […]
Jeebus. Larisa just pointed me to this. A highly unusual ruling by Lord Hutton, who chaired the inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death, means medical records including the post-mortem report will remain classified until after all those with a direct interest in the case are dead, the Mail on Sunday reported. And a 30-year secrecy order […]
I’m not Raul Grijalva or Jerry Nadler, but I thought I’d try to respond to TPM reader MD’s “sob story” (as MD called it) because the story illustrates the issues at stake in health care reform. Here’s the story. Like everyone I have a sob-story to tell about health care. After telling it to countless […]
I actually don’t know whether I am officially (that is, physically) “barren” or not. I know, though, that not long after I got married, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My doctors told me right away I’d go through six months of intensive treatment, followed by five years of hormonal treatment. The hormonal treatment, Tamoxifen, […]
As I reported yesterday, the Dawn Johnsen-less OLC wrote an opinion on January 8 retroactively authorizing the FBI’s inappropriate use of the exigent letters to snoop on Americans’ telecomm records. Now, Senators Feingold, Durbin, and Wyden, have demanded that opinion from Eric Holder. Of note, they tie their demand into DOJ IG Glenn Fine’s comment […]
From the start, let me say I support sidecar reconciliation going forward–the passage of the Senate health care bill, tied to the simultaneous passage through reconciliation of some fairly substantive changes (eliminating most of the excise tax, inclusion of a public option, possibly with Medicare buy-in, elimination of the antitrust exemption, and drug reimportation) that […]
