It's hard not to notice Barack Obama is taking some major heat these days. The right, of course, is in a state of perpetual, almost comical, "the sky is falling" hysteria over the guy and now a good portion of the left is pissed at him as [...]
by Jay McDonough
It seems like, at this point, the best case public option health care scenario to be passed by Congress would allow states to opt out and without the advantage of being able to negotiate for lower cost Medicare payments to providers.
So, it begs the question; can Congress pass [...]
The U.S. media always stops short of saying it. But England's media is now proclaiming Britain's entry and participation in the war in Iraq as "illegal". Reporting on the findings of the on going Chilcot inquiry, an official government commissioned investigation into [...]
Last night's "60 Minutes" had a really good feature on our health care system and, more specifically, medical spending in the last months of life.
John Cole wrote this about the segment:
Be great if we could have a serious discussion about this,' [...]
Two stories from the same edition, yesterday's New York Times. The first outlines the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's botched negotiations with later rescued insurance giant, AIG:
The Fed “refused to use its considerable leverage,” Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, [...]
Frank Luntz is a Republican pollster and consultant, author of several books on communication strategies, and serves as a paid contributor for Fox News. Luntz claims his specialty is “testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a [...]
I share Ron's concerns noted below about what may finally emerge from the reform debate. While there's been an awful lot already given away, the House version does contain some significant improvements to the existing system. This is from earlier today:
The House of Representatives, by a [...]
Here's the Washington Post's lead paragraph on yesterday's election results:
Off-year elections can be notoriously unreliable as predictors of the future, but as a window on how the political landscape may have changed in the year since President Obama won the White House, Tuesday's Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey [...]
Exactly one week ago today I wrote about the Senate's or, more specifically, Senate Republicans lack of urgency to pass an extension to federal unemployment benefits.
Seven thousand Americans per day are losing their unemployment benefits. Four hundred thousand lost their benefits in September and some [...]
It's a mystery the shit hasn't yet hit the fan. The most recent unemployment figures paint a ghastly picture. While 9.8% is the nation's official unemployment number, scratching the surface just a wee bit and adding the underemployed and those who've now given up on finding full time work raises the [...]
Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee did everything in its power to squash the proposed public option to health care reform. Beating back two amendments, it would seem the inclusion of a public option to a Senate passed health care reform bill is, at best, unlikely (despite what Senator Tom Harkin [...]
Connor Friedersdorf takes a shot at predicting which Republican might be successful at beating Barack Obama in 2012:
My somewhat uninformed guesses: David Petraeus and Colin Powell (who’d have all kinds of difficulty winning the primary). These accomplished generals share one related trait: deep credibility as men who are serious about [...]
If naivete was a valuable commodity, Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus could retire a very rich man. For weeks, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has promised that his committees version of a health care reform bill would be a true compromise, a bipartisan effort sure to win the support [...]
Rep. Joe "you lie" Wilson was reportedly reprimanded by his Republican colleagues following his outburst during President Obama's health care reform speech to Congress Wednesday night. He later announced he had called the White House and apologized for his outburst. It was also [...]
Amidst all the news about the White House circling wagons and developing a new strategy for health care reform, Ezra Klein reports there's a pretty significant debate going on in the Administration over the new position. Klein notes that two camps have formed:
The first camp could be called' [...]
Via Greg Sargent comes news of a memo being issued this morning to Congressional Democrats that spells out pretty clearly that Americans want a public option included in the final health care reform bill that emerges (hopefully) from Congress. Included in the memo is a summary [...]
Heretofore secret CIA documents on the organizations use of "enhanced interrogation" methods were finally released yesterday. Included in the documents were the two memos ex-Vice President Dick Cheney had argued would prove definitively that the Bush Administrations authorization to use torture had [...]
Newsweek reported yesterday that CIA personnel staged mock executions as part of their interrogation of terror suspects. According to CIA documents, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a gun and a power drill during questioning by the CIA.
"The purpose was to scare him" [...]
Katy Abram became famous a couple days ago when she spoke at Sen. Arlen Specter's town hall meeting in Pennsylvania, protesting and equating with socialism the current efforts to reform health care, the "systematic dismantling of this country", and asking Specter what he would do to [...]
Steve Benen tells the story on Kenneth Gladney today. Gladney, it seems, has become something of a celebrity in the St. Louis conservative movement when he was involved in a fight while protesting health care reform at a town hall meeting last week. Depending on who you believe, Gladney was [...]
This post dovetails nicely with Ron's earlier post.
Nothing is forever. The notion that America will continue until the end of time is romanticism run amok, whimsy without any sense of history or reality. The great Greek and Roman empires fell. The fantastic civilizations of South and Central America were [...]
Andrew Sullivan posted this right track/wrong track poll from Pollster.com today:
Sullivan then observed:
Americans are losing confidence in Obama's ability to bring change. Because he hasn't
That may be a bit overstated, but the comment does raise a series of questions about the long term prospects for' [...]
Is anyone surprised by this?
Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials.
Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, [...]
Remember Iraq? It was in the news for a while. You know, it's that country in the Middle East the U.S. was hoodwinked into invading in 2003. Not yet? Oh, come on. It's the war where some 4,400 Americans were killed, over 30,000 injured, some 700,000 Iraqis were killed and then [...]
At this point, I wouldn't bet big money that health care reform is a sure thing. Congress is in finger pointing mode, Republicans are being instructed to obstruct and delay, the conservative Blue Dog Democrats are making noises like they intend to join the GOP in resisting reform, and Barack Obama' [...]
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele appeared today before the NAACP's centennial convention and claimed an interest in rebuilding the tattered relationship between the GOP and black America.
“I have come here today not only to bring greetings, but also to renew our relationship [...]It seems fair to say the most economically powerful nations in the world are those that develop a strong technology base. And those capabilities require a culture that appreciates and understands the science that supports their technologies.
The new Pew Research poll on Americans view of science paints a [...]
"Corporatocracy" is the term Allison Kilkenny used in an essay today to describe our current state of federal governing. Dovetailing nicely with yesterday's post on health care lobbyists, Ms. Kilkenny notes that something on the order of $1.4M a day (yes, you read that correctly - that's' [...]
Sarah Palin announced today she would resign her responsibilities as Alaska governor at the end of July. She will turn over the responsibility to govern the state to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.
The speculation is Ms. Palin abandoned her responsibilities in order to concentrate on a 2012 [...]
Some things are almost too stupid to be true.
Here's Rush Limbaugh the other day explaining South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's disappearance and affair:
...So he ups and leaves for five days, doesn't leave anybody in charge of the state, in case there's an emergency.Norm Coleman finally conceded today he'd lost his bid to be reelected the Republican senator from Minnesota. Following multiple challenges and, finally, a decision by the states Supreme Court, Al Franken was ruled the winner of the November 2008 contest. It's likely Mr. Franken will be' [...]
Rescission. You know, like rescinding, or making void. Sounds so urbane, doesn't it? But, in fact, rescission is the private health insurance industries name for their practice of canceling the insurance of sick policy holders in order to maximize the company's profits. Not so urbane now, huh?
A recent investigation by the [...]
That the GOP positioning on health care reform is dishonest may be expected. It's politics after all. What's more infuriating is that a number of Democrats will join Republicans to likely defeat any real and substantive changes to our completely screwed up heath care system.
Sadly, [...]
Nice try Madame Secretary, but this is worthless. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, along with 14 former foreign ministers have drafted a proposal they believe will minimize the risks of nuclear weapons development.
First, here's the proposal:
We, former foreign ministers from 14 countries, recognize that the proliferation of nuclear weapons represents [...]Lakhdar Boumediene has completed his horrible sentence. Laura Ling and Euna Lee are just beginning theirs. In a perverse twist of fate, both stories appeared today.
Lakhdar Boumediene was flown from Guantanamo to Paris last month, free after serving seven and a half years in detention. Mr. Boumediene was accused in [...]
There's, no doubt, some wasteful spending in the federal budget. That's just the nature of the beast. But this "We're so outraged at government wasteful spending" shtick the GOP has got going is just a big joke. Try this: Ask them, specifically, what they would cut and how much' [...]
Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Twenty years ago tonight, the Chinese authorities first sent Chinese Army tanks to disrupt protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing that called for government reforms.
The protests began with the [...]
Lets see....in the 24 hours since President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as the next Justice to the Supreme Court, there are two distinct camps emerging in the GOP; the scared shitless, "we're not gonna say a word" group and the "what are'" [...]
While the use of waterboarding has figured prominently in the debate over Bush Administration approved interrogation methods, there were a number of other techniques that were approved by those Office of Legal Counsel memos written by Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury. Those other methods included sleep deprivation, heat/cold exposure [...]
Hmmm....Elizabeth Bumiller, the NY Times reporter with the big scoop on a Pentagon report claiming that 14% or Guantanamo detainees have returned to jihad activities against the U.S. is now backing off her original story.
Here's the original and revised first paragraphs of the story (my italics):
"An unreleased Pentagon report" [...]
Apparently, for those in the know the political debate is full of "code words". Seemingly ordinary words that, in the spectrum of hyperpartisan politics, become something akin to that red bullfighters cape to an enraged bull.
Barack Obama was accused [...]
Via Sullivan comes this Good Magazine map of death penalty laws around the world.
Note
that the U.S. is not exactly in some enlightened company here. One has
to question if we''re on the right track when we find ourselves sharing
policy with the likes [...]
A new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina argues that a correlation exists between a nations respect for human rights and the occurrence of both domestic and transnational terrorism.
This comes at a good time. Ex- VP Dick Cheney seems to be getting full access to try and [...]
I've written several times about tax policy and middle class wage stagnation. There's plenty of evidence that as middle class wages languished for the last 25 years, those individuals chose to use overinflated home equity and easy credit to become more and more leveraged in order to live a lifestyle' [...]
Several recent polls have indicated Americans are nearly split evenly on whether the use of torture is appropriate. The recent Pew Research poll found "15 percent of respondents said torture can often be justified while 34 percent say it is sometimes justified, for a total of 49 percent. Another 22 percent" [...]
Twelve U.S. soldiers were convicted for their crimes at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. Among the more notable are Specialist Charles Graner, found guilty of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, assault, and obstruction of justice. He was convicted in January 2005 and is [...]
I warned you. Brace yourself now for a steady stream of reports on the Bush Administrations descent into the approval and administration of torture. Here's some of the bigger stories of the day.
- The NY Times reported today that Cabinet officials and Republican and Democratic key Congressional committee' [...]
First off: Rahm Emanuel can go pound sand. President Obama's Chief of Staff appeared on ABC News "This Week" Sunday morning and host George Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Emanuel about the consequences for those Bush Administration officials that developed and authorized the use of torture. Emanuel replied those' [...]
Note: I see I have a slightly different take than Steve (his is directly below) on yesterday's release of Bush Admininistration torture memos. Here's my post on the subject:
Yesterday, just prior to the release of four Bush Administration memos outlining the use of torture, President Obama said "(It)" [...]
The requested two week continuance that the Obama Justice Department requested ends tomorrow. The three Bush Administration memos that reportedly included specific details about approved torture techniques and approved for release by Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently become the center of a contentious battle between the CIA and [...]
From Scott Horton comes news that Spanish prosecutors investigating high level Bush Administration members involvement in the administration of torture have decided to move forward and seek criminal charges against the men.
The six defendants are Alberto Gonzales (former Attorney General), Jay Bybee (Federal Appeals Court Judge [...]
Rasmussen polls are fairly notorious for being the outliers and, more often than not, tend to skew conservative. So today's poll noting only 53% of Americans favor capitalism to socialism will likely be read as a sign of the oncoming apocalypse by the Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh' [...]
An unidentified source who had read the memos characterized them as "ugly". When Newsweek reported, a few weeks ago, that Attorney General Eric Holder had authorized the release of three 2005 Bush Administration memos detailing the use of authorized "enhanced" interrogation techniques, it was widely suspected that [...]
It was something of a first when General Motors General Manager, Rick Wagoner, was asked to resign as a condition for GM securing more government bailout funds. And conservative columnists and cable TV hosts went apoplectic. For them, this was clear overreach, and more evidence of President Obama's master plan to' [...]
Two years ago, former Bush Administration Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hurriedly fled France, fearing he would be arrested by French authorities for "ordering and authorizing" the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Via [...]
An estimated one in four Americans get sick every year from food borne illnesses. And of those people, 300,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die.
Salmonella and E. coli bacteria outbreaks are routine. The most recent outbreak involved peanuts, traced to a Virginia peanut products facility. In recent years, salmonella outbreaks have been [...]
The Obama Administration has been fairly clear about it's feelings towards the Karzai government in Afghanistan. Disappointed by staggering corruption within the Afghan government and President Karzai's inability to impact any fundamental change, the Obama folks have been reportedly re-strategizing the U.S. course there.
Calls for change to the U.S. course have [...]
There's a sure fire way to get one's adversaries to dig in - threaten them. Broadcast intentions to destroy or harm them in some way and, nine times out of ten, the reaction will be heightened, steely resolve to assure one's safety. I don't know who in [...]
Just in case you didn't have enough to worry about...
In his 2002 State of the Union address, then President Bush asserted Iran, North Korea and Iraq constituted an "axis of evil". Mr. Bush said each of the nations aided world wide terrorism and were seeking or developing weapons of mass destruction' [...]
It seems a wee bit early, but even after just two months, Jonathan Freedland from the Guardian thinks an emerging "Obama Foreign Policy Doctrine" is becoming apparent.
The first unifying theme, sounded minutes after he took the presidential oath, is a repudiation of the legacy of his predecessor. [...]
There's a bunch of very pissed off folks in Washington, brooding over the "in your face" AIG decision to award $450M in bonuses to AIG managers. But, particularly at issue, is $165M of the bonus amount that went to the very executives who were responsible for the [...]
by Jay McDonough
“Poor men wanna be rich,
Rich men wanna be kings,
And the king ain’t satisfied til he rules everything”
(Badlands by Bruce Springsteen)
Ambition and power. There's one thing about power - once someone's got it, they're reluctant to give it up. So, all the power grabbing the Bush Administration did, as unseemly,' [...]
There were a couple comments to yesterday's post on President Obama's (and, for that matter, General Petraeus' and Secretary Robert Gates') suggestion that a potential solution to the conflict in Afghanistan might involve negotiations with the more moderate elements of the Taliban.
One commenter, after recounting attrocities committed by radical Islamic [...]
by Jay McDonough
There's a new Quinnipiac University poll out that indicates a high level of Americans feel the Obama mortgage plan is unfair to those that pay their mortgages on time. This comes following CNBC's Rick Santelli rant and prior to the release of the plan's details.
Sixty-four percent of those [...]
by Jay McDonough
Late yesterday, the Justice Department released nine internal Bush Administration documents used to shape U.S. war on terror policy following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Written in the months immediately following the the attacks, the Office of Legal Counsel memos served as the justification for what many considered, best case, broad over [...]
by Jay McDonough
Conservative Republicans held their annual "I'm OK, You're OK" (aka CPAC) conference this week in Washington. Determined not to be deterred by minor setbacks like voters overwhelmingly rejecting them in 2006 and 2008, the conference was filled with speakers arguing that the problem with the Republican electoral results [...]
by Jay McDonough
A lawsuit alleging U.S. intelligence services illegally eavesdropped on two American attorneys and an Islamic charity in Oregon will go forward following the Courts rejection of a last minute appeal by the Obama Administration Justice Department. The Bush Administration alleged the Saudi backed charity supported terrorist activities and froze its assets.
The order, by the [...]
by Jay McDonough
Senator Pat Leahy announced the Senate Judiciary Committee would debate, on Wednesday, the formation of a commission to investigate abuses by the Bush Administration. Sen. Leahy, in the video below, makes the announcement and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse endorses the hearing and makes a passionate case for discovery.
[...]
by Jay McDonough
Recent polling indicates Americans want the Bush Administration to be investigated for Constitutional abuses committed during their tenure. While there have been calls from House Democrats like John Conyers and Henry Waxman for investigations, most Democrats have been pretty quiet about the whole affair.
Democratic Senator Pat Leahy's recent call for [...]
by Jay McDonough
Ah, the power of marketing. With the right kind of money and influence, folks can be convinced of damn near anything. Margarine is better for you than butter. That super chamois Billy Mays advertises on TV can soak up a gallon of milk. And the media is liberal.
I've written about the' [...]
by Jay McDonough
Just over a month ago, I was (perhaps, unrealistically) optimistic the Obama inauguration would bring wholesale change to the way the next Executive Branch would do business. Not just abandoned, but repudiated, would be the gross overreach of the Bush Administration; the efforts to curtail civil liberties, the endorsement of torture, the [...]
by Jay McDonough
Most economists believe this recession will be a long, painful slog. Unemployment will likely rise and remain high for years rather than months. Manufacturers will continue to hold inventory and have little interest in expansion until, at least, some sign of demand occurs. Banks will be reluctant to provide credit in the [...]
by Jay McDonough
Several times during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama repeated Dr. Martin Luther King's counsel:
"...the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice"
I love that thought; the advice to be patient but unwavering and that, ultimately, right prevails over wrong.
Shortly after the terrorist attacks of' [...]
by Jay McDonough
Some pretty stunning data from a just released Gallup poll indicates Americans, by large margins, want the abuses of the Bush Administration either criminally investigated or investigated by an independent panel. Gallup asked Republican, Democrat and Independent respondents about the Bush Administration's use to torture, politicalization of the Justice Department and the use [...]
by Jay McDonough
Things became very complicated in Israel yesterday. The parliamentary elections failed to produce a runaway winner, requiring the party with the most seats in the Knesset to form a coalition government. With 99% of the votes counted, the center-right incumbent Kadima party has a one seat advantage, 28-27 over Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing' [...]
by Jay McDonough
Following up on a post from last week, a group of federal judges have ruled California must reduce the number of inmates in it's overcrowded prisons by up to 40%.
"Overcrowding
is the primary cause of the unconstitutional conditions that have been
found to exist in the California prisons," the court concluded.
Implementing the [...]
by Jay McDonough
Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's Central Intelligence Agency Director nominee, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday. Senators questioned Mr. Panetta about two subjects in particular; the use of rendition and torture by the CIA.
As noted yesterday, Mr. Panetta needed to answer questions as to his role in the use of rendition during [...]
by Jay McDonough
I love this:
When GOP congressional aides gather Tuesday morning for a meeting of the Conservative Working Group, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher – more commonly known as Joe the Plumber — will be their featured guest. This group is an organization of conservative Capitol Hill staffers who meet regularly [...]
by Jay McDonough
Congressional Republicans aren't the only ones playing chicken with newly elected President Obama. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is no longer feeling the "Bush love" and is wondering whether the new Obama Administration will be as easy to buffalo as theBush team. What better way to test the' [...]
By Jay McDonough
Former NSA analyst, Russell Tice, made some news last week when he asserted the U.S. government's surveillance program included not just terrorist suspects but targeted specific groups of Americans, such as the press, for monitoring as well.
Mr. Tice later acknowledged that, in additional to all the communications' [...]
by Jay McDonough
Russell Tice, a former analyst for the National Security Agency, appeared on last night's MSNBC "Countdown" and revealed a massive and targeted domestic spying program has been in effect for the last several years. While the Bush Administration vigorously maintained all spying was done legally and only on' [...]
by Jay McDonough
Obama Administration sources said Barack Obama will issue orders tomorrow to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo and prohibit the use of torture by the CIA. CNN reports the orders will call for:
• Closing the detention facility within a year.
• A systematic review of detention policies and procedures and [...]
by Jay McDonough
"Country First" was the official theme of the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
"Our convention will showcase a cross-section of leaders who will highlight John McCain's long commitment to putting our country first -- before self-interest or politics," said McCain 2008 Communications DirectorJill Hazelbaker. "The speakers will address John [...]
by Jay McDonough
It's always been denied. Bush Administration officials, when asked about war on terror detainee interrogations, would either flatly claim "We don't torture" or assert everything done has been well monitored and completely legal.
Of course, any objective observer knows this is patently false. So, with six days left of the Bush Administration, it's [...]
by Jay McDonough
The lowdown on Governor Rod Blagojevich is he's a typical crooked
Illinois politician. Politically ambitious in the worst way, not above
elevating his personal gain ahead of the public trust, and with an
unfamiliarity with those crazy, old fashioned ideals like justice and
accountability.
by Jay McDonough
Ms. Coulter is in the news today. It's her element, after all. A caustic, acid filled symbiosis; the media pursues her for her outrageousness and the promise she will say, on air, something ugly and shocking that will end up one of those YouTube viral hits we all [...]
by Jay McDonough
Bob Barr, ex congressman from Georgia and author of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act recommended the laws repeal today in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece.
Some background. The Defense of Marriage Act has two effects:
1. No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need treat a [...]
by Jay McDonough
Igor Panarin is a Russian political scientist who's been predicting for over a decade the U.S. will collapse and break apart in 2010. And, for whatever reason - envy, revenge, boredom - he's found an eager audience in the Russian state media. I wrote a post about his predictions in [...]
by Jay McDonough
Happy New Year to all. This is my favorite version of Robert Burn's "Auld Lang Syne". Eddi Reader at the opening ceremony of the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh in October 2004.
[...]
by Jay McDonough
The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878, just after the end of the Reconstruction following the Civil War, and prohibited the federal government from using the military for domestic law enforcement purposes except in very rare cases. Per Wikipedia, the Act was a political concession to Southern states, withdrawing the Union [...]
by Jay McDonough
The line often used these days by wary politicians is "I don't
support gay marriage, but I do support their right to have civil
unions". I suppose, that by itself, demonstrates progress. As
recently as eight or ten years ago, one wouldn't have heard even this
level of [...]
by Jay McDonough
One of the ramifications of borrowing all the money for ill conceived foreign wars, ideological tax cuts and, now, bailing ourselves out of an economic crisis will be the mounting interest on all that debt. The interest paid in 2008 will be approximately $459B, nearly 10% of the entire federal budget.
Most [...]
by Jay McDonough
President-elect Barack Obama's transition team today released it's internal report on staff contracts with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The report's conclusion; no one in the transition team acted inappropriately.
The report does note Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, had multiple contacts with the governor's office, but no one on the transition team [...]
by Jay McDonough
It did seem yesterday that Vice President Cheney was not just unapologetic about the Bush Administrations frequent disregard for that triviality the rest of us refer to as the Constitution, he seemed almost boastful and not at all concerned there would be any ramifications for his actions.
After all, the public and the [...]
by Jay McDonough
I've not been too critical of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet
choices. I think, in a post a while back, I noted some disappointment
so many of his choices seemed old guard Clinton Administration
officials. But I believed that, at the end of the day, it's about
implementing the [...]
by Jay McDonough
I've not been too critical of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet choices. I think, in a post a while back, I noted some disappointment so many of his choices seemed old guard Clinton Administration officials. But I believed that, at the end of the day, [...]
by Jay McDonough
Apophis is a 1,000 feet wide asteroid weighing at least 50 million
tons. Discovered in 2004 about 17 million miles from Earth, the
asteroid has a one in 44,000 chance of slamming into Earth on Easter
Sunday, April 13, 2036. The damage, according to a distinguished group
of [...]
by Jay McDonough
From the LA Times:
Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods used by the CIA, and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely.
Cheney's comments also mark the first time that he has acknowledged playing a [...]
by Jay McDonough
The $14B rescue plan to flailing automanufacturers General Motors and Chrysler pretty much died last night in the Senate. The White House is now considering changing course and endorsing using Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds for the short term loans to the automakers. While the House had passed the loan assurances [...]
