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Updated: 8 min 51 sec ago
34 min 3 sec ago
HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE DEFICIT SPENDING.... The federal government's annual budget deficit is poised to hit $1 trillion, about the double the previous record. Paul Krugman explains today that Barack Obama really shouldn't care about addressing...
1 hour 13 min ago
A CHANGE IN INTELLIGENCE.... The Wall Street Journal reported a few weeks ago that the upcoming Obama administration is "unlikely" to make major changes to the government's intelligence-gathering operations. The WSJ said this could lead to "tension within the Democratic...
1 hour 43 min ago
HOLDER IS AWARE OF OUR LAWS AND TRADITIONS.... At this morning's press conference in Chicago, I suspect most eyes were on Hillary Clinton. That's certainly understandable -- she's a national political powerhouse poised to become the president's most prestigious cabinet...
2 hours 28 min ago
AN OFFICIAL RECESSION.... The announcement was only a matter of time. The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the...
3 hours 3 min ago
BUSH SAYS HE WAS 'UNPREPARED FOR WAR'.... We've heard Bush express some various regrets in recent years, but I think this one is a first. Looking back on his eight years in the White House, President George W. Bush pinpointed...
3 hours 44 min ago
CABINET PRESSER Barack Obama held his fourth press conference in seven days this morning, introducing his national security team. As expected, Hillary Clinton will be Secretary of State, Robert Gates will stay on as Defense Secretary, Eric Holder will be...
4 hours 13 min ago
MONDAY'S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP....Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers. * After a procedural setback last week on counting absentee ballots, Al Franken's chances of victory...
4 hours 44 min ago
INTERNATIONAL MAN OF 'PEACE'?.... Mike Allen reported this morning, "Pastor Rick Warren will present President George W. Bush with the first International Medal of PEACE from the Global PEACE Coalition in recognition of his contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS...
5 hours 34 min ago
SAY GOODBYE TO THE HUMMER?.... Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, has a plan on how he'd proceed to help secure a government rescue plan. It includes shedding some GM brands. GM is studying eliminating brands, with Pontiac and Saab...
6 hours 3 min ago
WHY CNN IS HOSTING A 'NEWSPAPER SUMMIT'.... This should be interesting. CNN, in the afterglow of an election season of record ratings for cable news, is elbowing in on a new line of business: catering to financially strained newspapers looking...
6 hours 44 min ago
DYSFUNCTION ON THE HILL.... We knew, shortly after Democrats reclaimed the congressional majority in 2006, that governing might be a little, shall we say, tricky. The Bush White House didn't really have a policy agenda, and even if it did,...
7 hours 28 min ago
TORTURE DOESN'T WORK, REDUX.... One would like to think that the debate over torture policies is over. Torture doesn't work, it's illegal, it undermines our global standing, and it's fundamentally, morally repugnant. And yet, the argument persists. The leader of...
8 hours 14 min ago
CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.... Hilzoy mentioned this overnight, but it's worth re-emphasizing, since it's likely to be today's big story. At 10:40 a.m., the president-elect will introduce the leaders of his national security team, and while they come from...
14 hours 44 min ago
Tanta From the NYT (via Calculated Risk): "The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio. Tanta, who wrote for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, was a pseudonym for Doris Dungey,...
15 hours 43 min ago
THE NEXT FEMA.... The Washington Post reported the other day that the incoming Obama administration has been scrutinizing the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and plans to give it a "facelift." It was a reminder that Obama, on top...
Mon, 2008-12-01 04:34
Shifting Resources From the NYT: "When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who...
Sun, 2008-11-30 22:54
Auto Industry Bleg I've been trying to understand the problems of the auto industry, and on a couple of points I can't quite seem to figure out what's going on. So I thought: why not ask? (1) A quote from...
Sun, 2008-11-30 19:45
SENATORS WHO MOVE TO THE CABINET.... Much has been made of the fact that sitting senators have very rarely won the presidency. Barack Obama is the first since JFK 48 years ago, and only the third in American history, following...
Sun, 2008-11-30 18:00
MCCAFFREY.... David Barstow had a devastating New York Times piece back in April, documenting the practice of retired U.S. generals appearing on the major cable networks as "independent" media analysts, while they were simultaneously working for defense contractors, and repeating...
Sun, 2008-11-30 17:00
REPUBLICANS' 'MCCARTHY GENE'.... The story of Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign serving as the catalyst of the modern conservative movement, which reshaped the Republican Party, is well known. But Neal Gabler presents an interesting idea today, arguing that the real father...
