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Archive for February, 2009

dream ticket…

Drip, Drip, Drip … Talking Points Memo By Josh Marshall Well, it just gets better and better. As you know, we’ve been tracking the debunking of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s tall tale about being right there on the front lines fighting government bureaucracy with Sheriff Harry Lee while the boat rescues were still taking place […]

smart guy, this Obama fellow…

Health Workers’ ‘Conscience’ Rule Set to Be Voided February 28, 2009 The Washington Post The Obama administration’s move to rescind broad new job protections for health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable triggered an immediate political storm yesterday, underscoring the difficulties the president faces in his effort to find common ground on […]

two speeches…

I missed Andrew Sullivan’s live blogging Obama’s speech Tuesday night. Sullivan’s comments are a speech in their own right: Live-Blogging The President’s Address February 24, 2009 9.34 pm. "It’s not about helping banks; it’s about helping people." No sudden moves; "slowly but surely": very Obama. 9.35 pm. After a slightly rocky start, the man has […]

it’s their story…

John Bolton: The Mustache Lives By Matthew Cooper Talking Points Memo February 26, 2009 If you imagine Paul McCartney at Shea Stadium in 1965 you have some idea of the reception that the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, gave John Bolton this morning. The former United Nations Ambassador packed the largest ballroom at Washington’s […]

fraud…"> fraud

The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis By William K. Black Associate Professor, University of Missouri [Kansas City] Senior regulator during S&L debacle As a white-collar criminologist and former financial regulator much of my research studies what causes financial markets to become profoundly dysfunctional. The FBI has been warning of an […]

risky business…

an equation used in the quantification of risk In the kaleidoscope of issues whirling around over the recent roller-coaster months, it’s been almost impossible to rise above the particulars. Sitting around at the beach soothed by the regularity of the waves and the tides has given me a few moments out of the fray to […]

at last…

Obama’s State of the Union Address: An Epitaph for the GOP Huffington Post By Jacob Heilbrunn Not since Ronald Reagan has an American president in his early months enjoyed as high approval ratings as does Barack Obama. A new New York Times/CBS News poll indicates that three-quarters of Americans back President Obama. It’s further confirmation […]

a timeless story…

Now, about Pyrrho of Ellis, 360 BC – 270 BC, a Greek Philosopher I discovered while roaming around looking for a topic for a talk I was asked to give several years ago. Pyrrho started his life as a painter, but changed to philosophy. He signed on with Alexander the Great and roamed the world […]

the party’s over…

As the Republican Congressmen and their Media Stooges howl that "It won’t work!" about the Stimulus Package and the Mortgage Plan, they fail to mention how the thing they think "it" won’t fix came to be. "It" is the collapse of our economy during the last eight years of their own absolutely incompetent and destructive […]

more fun to watch than the soaps…

The Case for a Truth Commission By Patrick Leahy Feb. 19, 2009 More than 30 years ago, a special Senate investigation peered into abuses that included spying on the American people by their own government. The findings by Senator Frank Church’s committee, drawn from testimony spanning 800 witnesses and thousands of pages of government documents, […]