Snowe is fourth Senate Republican to support Kagan nomination ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/29/2010
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan picked up support from another Senate Republican today, as Olympia Snowe, of Maine, announced she would support Kagan's nomination.
Snowe is the fourth Republican to announce her support. Republicans Susan Collins, also of Maine, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have already said they will vote to confirm Kagan.
Arizona county deported 26,146 ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/29/2010
WASHINGTON — Officers from a single Arizona county helped deport more than 26,000 immigrants from the United States through a federal-local partnership program that has been roundly criticized as fraught with problems.
Statistics obtained by the Associated Press show that the Maricopa County sheriff’s office was responsible for the deportation or forced departure of 26,146 immigrants since 2007.
That is about a quarter of the national total of 115,841 sent out of the United States by offi
Ruling Against Arizona Is a Warning for Other States ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/29/2010
A federal judge in Arizona on Wednesday broadly vindicated the Obama administration’s high-stakes move to challenge that state’s tough immigration law and to assert the primary authority of the federal government over state lawmakers in immigration matters.
The ruling by Judge Susan R. Bolton, in a lawsuit against Arizona brought on July 6 by the Justice Department, blocked central provisions of the law from taking effect while she finishes hearing the case.
But in taking the forceful s
Immigration demonstrations kick off in Arizona ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ LA Times 07/29/2010
Reporting from Phoenix —
Opponents of Arizona's hardline stance on illegal immigration launched a small religious procession from the state Capitol before dawn Thursday, the first of a series of demonstrations for the day the nation's strictest immigration law was due to take effect.
A federal judge Wednesday halted implementation of much of the law, known as SB1070, ruling it unconstitutional. But activists said they had to keep up the pressure on a state that has come to define the nation
House lawmakers, citing corruption, may block $4 billion in aid to Afghanistan ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ LA Times 07/29/2010
Reporting from Washington —
House lawmakers voiced deep doubts on Wednesday about the Obama administration's efforts to fight corruption in Afghanistan, and warned that they may block $4 billion in U.S. aid unless they are convinced it will not be stolen or wasted.
At a time of growing skepticism in Congress about the Afghanistan mission, lawmakers told U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke that they lacked confidence in the Afghan government's promises to end corruption, and the Obama administra
'The intent of both proposals is to make the Senate more like the Senate' ♦♦ Author: Ezra Klein ♦♦ Washington Post 07/29/2010
This morning, I went to the latest in a series of Senate Rules Committee hearings on filibusters and holds. This one focused on two reform proposals, offered by Sens. Michael Bennet and Frank Lautenberg.
Bennet's proposal is quite sweeping. It would eliminate anonymous holds, limit holds without bipartisan support to two days, and limit all holds to 30 days. It would require 41 senators to vote to uphold the filibuster, reversing the current requirement that 60 senators vote to stop it. That
On midterm campaign trail, Obama mixes populist appeal with wooing of big donors ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/29/2010
President Obama's message to voters this election year is simple and full of populist zeal: Democrats are on the side of the little guy, not the Wall Street brokers, celebrities and chief executives.
And yet as his poll numbers slide, the president's greatest utility to Democratic candidates may not be his presence at campaign events -- some would prefer that he keep his distance -- but his still impressive skill at vacuuming up millions of dollars from some of the country's richest and mos
Poll shows opposition to health care overhaul declining ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/29/2010
Opposition to the landmark health care overhaul declined over the past month, to 35 percent from 41 percent, according to the latest results of a tracking poll, reported Thursday.
Fifty percent of the public held a favorable view of the law, up slightly from 48 percent a month ago, while 14 percent expressed no opinion about the measure, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The approval level was the highest for the legislation since it was enacted in March, after a div
A Matter of Time ♦♦ Author: Michael J. Panzner ♦♦ Financial Armageddon 07/29/2010
They are going to have to spend more of our money to keep their ponzi going. Shouldn't we be telling them no?
Bill Gross Ponders "Deep Demographic Doo-Doo" ♦♦ Author: Mike "Mish" Shedlock ♦♦ Global Economic Trend Analysis 07/29/2010
Public economic policy depends on "growing our way out of fiscal irresponsibility". What happens when you aren't growing? Their models fall apart. If ever there was a time when we need new faces in Washington it is now.
Oh, They DO Intend To Steal From You ♦♦ Author: Karl Denninger ♦♦ Market-Ticker 07/29/2010
Washington and Wall Street ... keeping secrets again. This time ... as usual ... it means that law enforcement is selective at best.
Dems election strategy: Equate GOP and tea party ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/28/2010
WASHINGTON -- The Democrats' national chairman on Wednesday trotted out his party's fall election strategy to limit potential GOP gains, claiming Republican goals are inseparable from the tea party's, from killing off Medicare to abolishing the departments of Education and Energy.
Republicans brushed off Tim Kaine's attack and struck back at the Democrats who run Washington, saying their "arrogant agenda" has so frustrated voters that they want a new party in charge.
DNC plan tries to tie Republican Party to fringe 'tea party' elements ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/28/2010
Democratic leaders unveiled a plan Wednesday to link the Republican Party to some of the most extreme elements of the "tea party" movement, seeking to define all GOP candidates as outside the mainstream by highlighting such tea party talking points as ending Medicare and privatizing Social Security.
With lawmakers preparing to head home to their districts to campaign during the August recess, Democratic leaders sought to demonstrate that all Republicans are cut from the same cloth as such
Judge Blocks Key Parts of Immigration Law in Arizona ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/28/2010
PHOENIX — A federal judge, ruling on a clash between the federal government and a state over immigration policy, has blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law from going into effect.
In a ruling on a law that has rocked politics coast to coast and thrown a spotlight on the border state’s fierce debate over immigration, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix said some aspects of the law can go into effect as scheduled on Thursday.
Criminal probe of oil spill to focus on 3 firms and their ties to regulators ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/28/2010
A team of federal investigators known as the "BP squad" is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources.
Paper: Perry land deal benefited from courtesies ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Houston Chronicle 07/28/2010
DALLAS — Gov. Rick Perry's investment in a Texas resort property was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
Together they may have enriched the Republican governor by nearly $500,000, according to an independent real estate appraisal commissioned by the newspaper.
Perry's aides said all transactions surrounding
On opposite sides of world, Obama and former Australian PM linked by a common story ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/28/2010
Is there an ominous message for President Obama coming from Down Under?
Kevin Rudd's tenure as prime minister of Australia, from 2007 until last month, can be seen as an almost eerie harbinger of Obama's political fortunes.
A young, charismatic leader, Rudd catapulted to leadership with the same wonky-but-inspiring persona and a can-do message of government action that foreshadowed the Obama campaign of a year later.
Why Some Republicans Want to ‘Restore’ the 13th Amendment ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ MSNBC 07/28/2010
f there is an aspect of the human condition that is unaddressed by the platform of the Republican Party of Iowa, adopted last month at the state convention in Des Moines, you’d have to look awfully hard to find it. Its 387 enumerated planks and principles range widely over politics, culture, and economics, from sweeping statements of belief (“America is good”) to the fine nuances of agricultural policy (“We support the definition of manure as natural fertilizer”) and touching on the mythical “N
Rangel seeks plea agreement to avoid ethics trial ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/28/2010
WASHINGTON — Representative Charles Rangel attempted a last-minute plea deal yesterday to head off a House ethics trial that could embarrass him and damage Democrats facing potentially severe election losses.
The talks between Rangel’s lawyer and the House Ethics Committee’s nonpartisan attorneys were confirmed by Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and ethics chairwoman. She said she is not involved in the talks, adding that the committee’s lawmakers have always accepted the professional st
Ariz. braces for immigration law ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/28/2010
PHOENIX — The sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county is making room in a vast outdoor jail and determined to round up illegal immigrants to fill it. Police from the US-Mexico border to the Grand Canyon are getting last-minute training. And protests and marches are planned throughout Phoenix.
Arizona’s new immigration law takes effect tomorrow, creating a potentially volatile mix of police, illegal immigrants, and thousands of activists, many planning to show up without identification as a
Ex-Regulators Get Set to Lobby on New Financial Rules ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/28/2010
WASHINGTON — As the battle over toughened financial restrictions moves to a new front, the regulatory agencies that will create hundreds of new rules for the nation’s banks will face a lobbying blitz from companies intent on softening the blow. And many of the lobbyists the regulators hear from will be their former colleagues.
Nearly 150 lobbyists registered since last year used to work in the executive branch at financial agencies, from lawyers for the Securities and Exchange Commission to
Campaign Finance Bill Is Set Aside ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/28/2010
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday refused to take up a bill that would require more disclosure of the role of corporations, unions and other special interests in bankrolling political advertisements, after Democrats failed to persuade even one Republican to support it.
The bill was drafted in response to a Supreme Court decision in January allowing unlimited campaign spending by corporations and interest groups.
House Approves Money for Wars, but Rift Deepens ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/28/2010
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives agreed on Tuesday to provide $59 billion to continue financing America’s two wars, but the vote showed deepening divisions and anxiety among Democrats over the course of the nearly nine-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.
The 308-to-114 vote, with strong Republican support, came after the leak of an archive of classified battlefield reports from Afghanistan that fueled new debate over the course of the war and whether President Obama’s counterinsurgen
House to vote on war spending bill amid calls for change in strategy ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON – House lawmakers this afternoon are planning to vote on a bill that would add $33 billion in spending for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a proposal that has stoked further controversy in the wake of new disclosures this week.
House rules will require a two-thirds majority to pass the bill, which includes several other spending items, and the vote is expected to be close.
Representative James P. McGovern, a leading anti-war Democrat, has been harshly critical of the additional f
New Health Official Faces Hostility in Senate ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON – House lawmakers this afternoon are planning to vote on a bill that would add $33 billion in spending for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a proposal that has stoked further controversy in the wake of new disclosures this week.
House rules will require a two-thirds majority to pass the bill, which includes several other spending items, and the vote is expected to be close.
Representative James P. McGovern, a leading anti-war Democrat, has been harshly critical of the additional f
New Health Official Faces Hostility in Senate ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON — Unlike many other health policy experts, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, the new chief of Medicare and Medicaid, has extensive real world experience.
As co-founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass., he worked with doctors and nurses to upgrade care at hundreds of hospitals from Contra Costa County, Calif., to Green Bay, Wis., to Florence, S.C. — and from Britain to Sweden to South Africa.
He led efforts to reduce medical errors, eliminate hospital-acqui
Democrats push forward on campaign spending disclosure act ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON — Facing a difficult climb to the 60 votes needed to overcome resistance by Republicans, Senate Democrats are pushing forward this afternoon toward a vote on legislation that would force more spending disclosure in federal campaigns.
Democrats had hopes that Senator Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, could be persuaded to support the bill, known as the DISCLOSE Act, but Brown’s office confirmed this morning that he remains opposed.
Obama, GOP spar over how to revive ailing economy ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Houston Chronicle 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama derided an economic plan from the top House Republican as repeating job-killing policies of the past that help drive the country into recession.
In turn, House GOP leader John Boehner said the president had stooped to partisan attacks because he can't sell his own plan at a time when millions of people want to know what happened to the jobs Obama promised to create.
Days after signing into law tougher regulations on the financial industry, Obama said S
Test ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ AAA Staff 07/27/2010
Please disregard
Obama Assails Republicans on Campaign Finance ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday sought political advantage from the expected defeat of a campaign finance measure that he has championed by pre-emptively attacking its Republican opponents for “nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special-interest takeovers of our elections.”
Mr. Obama’s statement to reporters at the White House was added to his daily schedule after it became clear that the Senate would vote Tuesday on whether to take up a bill that would require corporat
Document Leak May Hurt Efforts to Build War Support ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/27/2010
WASHINGTON — The disclosure of a six-year archive of classified military documents increased pressure on President Obama to defend his military strategy as Congress prepares to deliberate financing of the Afghanistan war.
The disclosures, with their detailed account of a war faring even more poorly than two administrations had portrayed, landed at a crucial moment. Because of difficulties on the ground and mounting casualties in the war, the debate over the American presence in Afghanistan
WikiLeaks disclosures unlikely to change course of Afghanistan war ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/27/2010
In the first 24 hours after the unauthorized release of more than 91,000 secret documents about the war in Afghanistan, a few things became clear to the officials, lawmakers and experts reading them:
-- New evidence that the war effort is plagued by unreliable Afghan and Pakistani partners seems unlikely to undermine fragile congressional support or force the Obama administration to shift strategy.
-- The disclosure of what are mostly battlefield updates does not appear to represent a ma
GE finds itself on wrong side of Obama's defense agenda ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/27/2010
For more than a year, General Electric has been notable among U.S. corporations for enjoying generally friendly relations with the White House. The company was broadly supportive of President Obama's stimulus efforts, and its chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, sits on a White House economic advisory board.
But now the White House and GE are clashing publicly over a fighter-jet engine -- built by the company and its British partner, Rolls-Royce -- that has been on the Pentagon's chopping block for ye
Obama finds that the Internet bites back ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/27/2010
For a man who came to power by harnessing the potential of the Internet, President Obama has been oddly out of sorts in recent days as the medium turned against him.
Last week, his advisers embarrassed themselves when they fired a mid-level Agriculture Department official over a supposedly racist video clip on
a right-wing blog -- only to apologize and offer to rehire her when they learned that the innocent woman had been the victim of selective excerpting.
Then, on Monday afternoon, W
At Blagojevich trial, 'dirty schemes' in detail ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/27/2010
CHICAGO -- As governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich was a bully who rigged state business to build his campaign treasury and line his pockets, a federal prosecutor said Monday, urging jurors to find Blagojevich guilty of two dozen corruption charges.
Blagojevich (D) broke the law repeatedly, ending with a frenzied 2008 attempt to sell the Senate seat once held by President Obama, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Niewoehner said at the close of a seven-week trial, detailing what he descr
Among House Democrats in Rust Belt, a sense of abandonment over energy bill ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/27/2010
When Democratic Rep. John Boccieri went home to Ohio early this year to talk with voters in his Canton-based district, he figured he would have to do battle with at least some constituents over his support for health-care reform. And the economic stimulus. And the auto company bailouts.
But at a meeting with business leaders, he had to come up with fast answers on something completely different: Why, the businessmen wanted to know, had Boccieri voted for a bill last summer to cap carbon em
Where Economic Success is Going to Come From ♦♦ Author: John Mason ♦♦ Mase: Economics and Finance 07/27/2010
Government intervention in markets has lead to malinvestments. And ... to think they want to intervene some more. These guys are not smart enough. In fact ... they have outsmarted themselves and as usual we pay for their mistakes.
Leaks Add to Pressure on White House Over Strategy ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/26/2010
WASHINGTON — The White House sought to reassert control over the public debate on the Afghanistan war on Monday as political reaction to the disclosure of a six-year archive of classified military documents increased the pressure on President Obama to defend his war strategy.
On Capitol Hill, leading Democratic lawmakers said the documents, with their fine-grain portrayal of a war faring even more poorly than two administrations have previously portrayed, would intensify congressional scrut
GOP lawmakers optimistic about 'no' votes ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/26/2010
n February, when unpredictable Sen. Jim Bunning single-handedly stalled extensions of unemployment benefits for several days, his Republican colleagues quickly abandoned him, worried that the GOP would be cast as the party against helping people who are out of work.
Last month, as jobless benefits were again to set to expire, Bunning (Ky.) still objected to funding them in a way that would increase the deficit. But this time, nearly every Republican in the Senate joined him, leading to a mon
WikiLeaks: More US documents coming on Afghan war ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ AAA Staff 07/26/2010
LONDON—The release of some 91,000 secret U.S. military documents on the Afghanistan war is just the beginning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange promised Monday, adding that he still has thousands more Afghan files to post online.
The White House, Britain and Pakistan have all condemned the online whistle-blowing group's release Sunday of the classified documents, one of the largest unauthorized disclosures in military history. The Afghan government in Kabul said it was "shocked" at the relea
Warren’s Candidacy Raises a Partisan Debate ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/26/2010
Elizabeth Warren last week won the endorsements of several dozen Congressional Democrats, two of the nation’s leading labor groups and her hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe.
One would be forgiven for thinking that the Harvard professor is running for elected office.
Instead, Ms. Warren’s supporters want President Obama to nominate her as the first head of a new consumer financial protection bureau created by the legislation he signed into law last week. They say that Ms. Warren, who
White House: Afghan war leaks put lives 'at risk' 90,000 military records are disclosed online ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ MSNBC 07/26/2010
WASHINGTON — Some 90,000 leaked U.S. military records posted online Sunday amount to a blow-by-blow account of six years of the Afghanistan war, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures.
The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks posted the documents on its website Sunday. The New York Times, London's Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel were given early access to the documents.
The White House responded imme
The Tax Con ♦♦ Author: Tom Lindmark ♦♦ But Then What 07/26/2010
We have to raise taxes because we can't reduce spending? Maybe we need somebody else in charge.
President Obama signs six-month extension of emergency unemployment benefits ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/23/2010
President Obama signed a six-month extension of emergency jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed on Thursday, restoring aid to nearly 3 million people whose checks have been cut off since the program expired in early June.
The White House signing ceremony came barely three hours after the House approved the $34 billion measure on a vote of 272 to 152. The Senate passed the measure Wednesday after a months-long stalemate. President Obama signs six-month extension of emergency unemploym
APNewsBreak: Records show Greene's military flops ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/23/2010
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Surprise U.S. Senate nominee Alvin Greene frequently mentions his 13 years of military service, but records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show that the veteran who has called himself an "American hero" was considered a lackluster service member at best.
The records, which document his superiors' decisions to pass over Greene for promotion, cite mistakes as severe as improperly uploading sensitive intelligence information to a military server, and as basic as an
A place for race on Obama's agenda ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/23/2010
Two years ago, in a powerful speech in Philadelphia, presidential candidate Barack Obama warned that Americans will not be able to overcome their divisions if they continue to "tackle race only as a spectacle."
This week, however, the subject of race returned to the forefront as just that: A spectacle over a selectively edited Internet video that led to the hasty firing of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod for seemingly making racist comments. Then came a rush of recrimination
The Troubled Smaller Banks and Elizabeth Warren ♦♦ Author: John Mason ♦♦ Mase: Economics and Finance 07/23/2010
Small banks are too little to save at least as far as Wall Street, Washington and the Too Big To Fail banksters are concerned.
House set to approve additional jobless benefits ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ AAA Staff 07/22/2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is one House vote away from resuming unemployment payments to millions of people whose benefits have lapsed as the nation suffers through a wretched job market.
President Barack Obama is set to sign the bill as soon as Congress can ship it to him. The Senate broke through months of stalemate in passing the measure Wednesday by a 59-39 vote. The House was expected to pass it around midday Thursday.
Some 2.5 million people who have been out of work for six months
Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern About Safety ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/22/2010
WASHINGTON — A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.
In the survey, commissioned by the rig’s owner, Transocean, workers said that company plans were not carried out properly and that they “often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig.”
Some workers also voiced concerns about poor equipment reliability, “whic
Boehner not sure if his brothers have jobs ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/22/2010
At a media breakfast Wednesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner attempted to show that he sympathizes with the unemployed. But in the process he admitted that he didn't even know whether his own siblings had jobs.
"I've got real empathy for those who are unemployed," the Ohio Republican said. "As most of you know, I've got 11 brothers and sisters. I know that three of my brothers lost their jobs. I'm not sure whether they've found jobs, yet, so I've got a lot of empathy for those caught i
The Obama team's image of steely resolve gets a bit tarnished ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/22/2010
At the height of the 2008 presidential campaign, as Barack Obama started the search for a running mate, the media seized onto a story about Jim Johnson, the man Obama had chosen to lead the search.
Reports started emerging that Johnson had received a sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide, a firm he had once regulated, and as the media frenzy began, Obama and his top aides huddled to discuss it.
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, later called it a "Grade-A s---storm."
"The day the
Shirley Sherrod wants to talk to President Obama ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/22/2010
Ousted but now recruited U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod says she wants to hear directly from President Obama that he and his administration are fully committed to fighting discrimination against black farmers.
“I can’t say that the president is fully behind me,” Sherrod told ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday morning. “I would hope that he is…I would love to talk to him.”
Sherrod -- whose forced resignation Monday night based on a misleading video snippet led to
Three of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for federal government ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/22/2010
Three out of every four lobbyists who represent oil and gas companies previously worked in the federal government, a proportion that far exceeds the usual revolving-door standards on Capitol Hill, a Washington Post analysis shows.
Key lobbying hires include 18 former members of Congress and dozens of former presidential appointees. For other senior management positions, the industry employs two former directors of the Minerals Management Service, the since-renamed agency that regulates the
Obama signs financial overhaul law ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ LA Times 07/21/2010
The legislation creates a bureau with the power to make rules for credit cards, mortgages and other products. Backers say the law is powerful protection for consumers; foes see a 'permanent bailout' and a 'boondoggle.'
Reporting from Washington —
Declaring that "the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes," President Obama on Wednesday signed landmark legislation providing the most sweeping overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression.
FDA orders halt in enrollment in clinical trial for diabetes drug Avandia ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Boston Globe 07/21/2010
WASHINGTON – The FDA today ordered drug maker GlaxoSmithKline to stop enrolling new patients in a controversial clinical trial of its widely marketed diabetes drug, Avandia.
One of the 17 sites that has been enlisting patients for the study, comparing the safety of Avandia to another drug, Actos, is in Haverhill; the doctor overseeing patients for that location in the trial, Dr. Seth Bilazarian, has declined to say how many patients he has recruited in the trial thus far. Bilazarian did not
Excluded from invitation list for Obama's signing of Wall Street reform: Wall Street titans ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/21/2010
When President Obama steps Wednesday onto the stage at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to sign Wall Street reform into law, many of the titans of Wall Street will be absent.
Among those who did not receive an invitation to be among the 400 people at the 11:30 a.m. bill signing: Morgan Stanley's James Gorman, Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein, Wells Fargo's John G. Stumpf and -- somewhat surprisingly -- J.P. Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon.
Firing of USDA official Shirley Sherrod now under review ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/21/2010
A fuzzy video of a racially themed speech that prompted the ouster this week of an Agriculture Department official has opened a new front in the ongoing war between the left and right over which side is at fault for stoking persistent forces of racism in politics.
By early Wednesday, as the full context of the video became known, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he would review his decision to ask USDA official Shirley Sherrod to step down.
Long-Term Jobless in the Current Economic Malaise ♦♦ Author: John Mason ♦♦ Mase: Economics and Finance 07/21/2010
These clowns want to repeat themselves. Their fooling around with the market over the past 50 years is the heart of the darkness. In fact they are not quite as smart as they think they are.
With one-two punch, Goldman Sachs' second-quarter profit takes a dive ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ LA Times 07/20/2010
Reporting from New York —
Hit by a big government fine and difficult trading conditions, leading Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has reported a sharply lower profit.
The bank announced Tuesday morning that profit in the second quarter of the year was down 86% from the first quarter of 2010 and 84% from the second quarter of 2009 to $613 million, or 0.78 cents a share.
The announcement by the company comes just days after it settled a lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Com
Senate Is Set to Extend Aid to the Jobless ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/20/2010
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are poised to break a partisan stalemate on Tuesday over extending unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who have been jobless for six months or more, but the fight seems certain to continue playing out as a defining issue in the midterm elections.
One day before a crucial procedural vote to provide added unemployment assistance through November, President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden on Monday with three out-of-work Americans to hammer Republica
U.S. Home Construction Declined 5% in June ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/20/2010
Construction starts on residential buildings declined in June to its lowest level since October, the government reported on Tuesday, as the sector struggles with a tepid recovery and the end of a government tax credit.
The Commerce Department reported that housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 549,000, about 5 percent below the revised May estimate of 578,000. The June rate was at its lowest level since October 2009 and also fell below analysts estimates of 580,000, ac
U.S. and S. Korea to Conduct War Games Next Week ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/20/2010
SEOUL, South Korea —The United States and South Korea announced on Tuesday that a series of large-scale military exercises would begin next week in the waters off Japan and Korea as a show of force and “first step” in trying to deter North Korea from acts of aggression in the region.
The exercises, to be conducted from Sunday to Wednesday, are to include an American aircraft carrier, the George Washington, as well as some 20 ships and submarines, 100 aircraft and 8,000 men and women from the
Democrats retake lead in generic ballot ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/20/2010
1. A week removed from an internecine fight about whether or not control of the House is up for grabs this fall (it is), Democrats got some welcome news this morning as the party re-took the lead in Gallup's generic congressional ballot question.
Forty-nine percent of those tested said they preferred a generic Democratic candidate for Congress while 43 percent said they would opt for a generic Republican. Democrats' six point margin represents a bump from the Gallup data earlier this month
Palin invents word 'refudiate,' compares herself to Shakespeare ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/20/2010
he Twittersphere erupted Sunday when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tweeted that "peaceful Muslims" should "refudiate" the mosque being built in New York City near where the Twin Towers once stood. Palin found herself the butt of many tweets, as refudiate, of course, is not a word in the English language.
After deleting the offending tweet, Palin replaced it with another calling on "peaceful New Yorkers" to "refute the Ground Zero mosque plan," which only added to the confusion because it wo Comments(1)
Battle looms over new job heading financial watchdog ♦♦ Author: Brady Dennis ♦♦ Washington Post 07/20/2010
President Obama has yet to sign the bill that will overhaul financial regulations, and already a tug of war is unfolding over whom he will tap for the highest-profile position created by the landmark legislation.
At the center of this wrangling is Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken Harvard law professor who served as a key architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new regulator that she is a top candidate to lead.
Republican immigration position likely to alienate Latinos, Obama officials say ♦♦ Author: Michael Scherer ♦♦ Washington Post 07/20/2010
President Obama and his political aides privately acknowledge that the government's decision to sue Arizona over its new immigration law is helping to fuel an anti-immigration fervor that could benefit some Republicans in elections this fall.
But White House officials have concluded that, over the long term, the Republicans' get-tough message is a major political miscalculation. They predict it will ultimately alienate millions of Latinos, the fastest-growing minority group in the nation.
Biden Responds to McChrystal’s Words ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ New York Times 07/19/2010
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Sunday that he did not feel personally attacked by the derisive remarks by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and his aides in a Rolling Stone article published last month. But he suggested that General McChrystal’s firing as the top commander in Afghanistan was necessary.
“I didn’t take it personally at all; I really, honest to God, didn’t,” the vice president said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” “Compared to what happens in politics, this was a piece
Mystery for White House: Where Did the Jobs Go? ♦♦ Author: John Harwood ♦♦ New York Times 07/19/2010
Welcome as it is, progress toward finally capping the gulf oil leak hasn’t resolved the biggest conundrum facing President Obama before the midterm elections.
That conundrum, which reclaims center stage in Washington this week, is this: Why is unemployment so high?
The whodunit has flummoxed economists in both parties for a year. In 2009, as the new Obama administration grappled with the financial crisis, joblessness rose nearly two points beyond customary recession forecasts.
Part of
Union accuses immigration agency of discrimination in leak probe ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/19/2010
The union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is accusing the agency of unfairly targeting an agent investigators apparently suspect of leaking information about controversial arrest quotas to the media.
Officials with the American Federation of Government Employees National Council 118 said Friday that they suspect that the agent is being harassed because his surname is Asian, as is that of the reporter from The Washington Post who wrote about the quotas. The union de
Tea party leader expelled over slavery letter ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/19/2010
The NAACP ignited a firestorm last week when it passed a resolution at its national convention condemning racism within the tea party movement. Not surprisingly, the issue was a topic of much discussion on the Sunday talk shows.
On CBS' "Face the Nation," NAACP President Ben Jealous faced off against David Webb of the National Tea Party Federation. Webb said Mark Williams, the former chairman and spokesman of Tea Party Express who came under fire last week for writing a satirical letter in
Obama gets tough on jobless benefits ♦♦ Author: AAA Staff ♦♦ Washington Post 07/19/2010
The gloves are off.
For the second time in three days, President Obama is planning to unload on his Republican adversaries, calling them out for blocking the passage of emergency unemployment insurance.
A White House official says the president will take to the Rose Garden Monday morning at 10:30, where he will "have strong words" for the GOP lawmakers who have blocked the emergency legislation despite having supported identical measures under Republican presidents.
"And he will point
Why Obama's approval rating remains low, despite legislative wins ♦♦ Author: Steven Pearlstein ♦♦ Miami Herald 07/18/2010
Step by step, President Barack Obama is building a record of major legislation that's sure to make a mark on history.
The most sweeping financial regulation since the Great Depression. A vast expansion of health care, which Democrats had wanted for more than six decades. An $862 billion stimulus package that locked in long-sought Democratic priorities.
Yet his job-approval rating remains low. Why doesn't he get any credit?
First, the economy remains shaky. Second, he went further with