FUBAR
Oh! I should have known. It’s all 11-dimensional chess.
Obama’s healthcare trade-off
By dropping his insistence on a public insurance option, President Obama angered some of his most loyal supporters but sharply improved the odds of passing a far-reaching healthcare overhaul.
Three cheers for the real Democrats.
Liberals revolt over public option
A group of left-leaning House Democrats tells POLITICO that a bill without a public option simply won’t win enough votes in their caucus – a sentiment that raises fresh questions about the prospects to enact sweeping health care reform this year.
“A bill without a public option won’t pass the House,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), a member of Energy & Commerce Health subcommittee. “Not only are they weakening their proposal, but they are also weakening their hand. This is legislative subtraction by subtraction.”
Privately, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus sent the same message to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said Sunday that a public plan is “not the essential element” of comprehensive reform.
Are these guys just fooling with us now?
Senate Democrats Call Public Option Essential
Several leading Democrats voiced concern Monday about an apparent White House shift on health-care reform, objecting to signals from senior administration officials that they would abandon the idea of a government-run insurance plan if it lacked the backing to pass Congress.
Memo to Democrats: Republicans don’t want ANY type of health care reform. It’s not about how you call it or how you structure it. They WILL sabotage it, with the same argument they always use. You think by renouncing a true reform and opting for “a co-op plan” you’ll appease them and even get them on board? Think again. And wait until serial liar Betsy McCaughey gets hold of that plan too.
Republicans: A Co-op Plan Is Government-Run Health Care
The RNC forwarded a press release/research memo to reporters today claiming that a “‘public option’ by any other name is still government health care.”
Politics
Clinton Puts Spotlight On Women’s Issues
She plans to press governments on abuses of women’s rights and make women more central in U.S. aid programs.
But her efforts go beyond the marble halls of government and show how she is redefining the role of secretary of state. Her trips are packed with town hall meetings and visits to micro-credit projects and women’s dinners. Ever the politician, she is using her star power to boost women who could be her allies.
“It’s just a constant effort to elevate people who, in their societies, may not even be known by their own leaders,” Clinton said in an interview. “My coming gives them a platform, which then gives us the chance to try and change the priorities of the governments.”
Is it just another 11-dimensional chess? We are getting used to it.
Obama ’supports repeal’ of same-sex marriage ban, lawyers say
The Obama administration sent mixed signals on same sex-marriage Monday, frustrating both sides of the contentious issue.
In a legal brief filed Monday, Justice Department lawyers asserted that the administration “does not support” a law that limits the federal definition of marriage to heterosexual couples, calling it “discriminatory” and saying that the administration “supports its repeal.”
Yet in that same brief, Justice Department lawyers ask a judge to throw out a lawsuit against the that very same law, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Israelis sour on Rahm Emanuel
An observant Jew with deep ties to Israel, Emanuel is viewed as something of a native son, his rise through the ranks of American politics celebrated by Israelis who reveled in details such as his childhood summers spent in Israel and his volunteer stint during the first Gulf War in an Israeli military program for civilians.
When Emanuel was tapped to be Obama’s chief of staff, a headline in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz kvelled “Obama’s first pick: Israeli Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff,” while the Jewish news service JTA went with “Rahm Emanuel: attack dog, policy wonk, committed Jew.”
But in a dramatic emotional shift, Israelis have become increasingly disenchanted with Emanuel, and the disappointment is especially intense on the Israeli right, which supports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his opposition to Obama’s call for ceasing settlement activity.
Economy Watch
Regulators Were Told of Stanford Fraud, Investors Say
Investors who lost their savings in certificates of deposit issued by the Antiguan bank of R. Allen Stanford told a Congressional panel Monday that federal regulators had ignored warnings as early as 2003 that the bank’s finances were questionable.
“These agencies along with Stanford have robbed me of my American dream,” Craig Nelson, a 55-year-old resident of Magnolia Springs, Ala., testified at a Senate Banking Committee field hearing.
“I feel the U.S. government is responsible for my loss,” Mr. Nelson said, words that earned a standing ovation from the audience of more than 250 Stanford investors in a crowded auditorium.
It’s not just greed that drives top bankers
The culture of the City and Wall Street – and increasingly big business – is about more than bald numbers. It is also about arrogance – the belief, for example, among Enron executives, that they were “the smartest guys in the room”. Paying vast sums, out of kilter with value created, feeds this attitude and distorts judgment on what’s best for the company.
Why be so modest with our money? Hey, we give AIG $100 billion in March to spend as they wish.
New Chief at A.I.G. to Be Paid at Least $7 Million a Year
How much will it cost the American International Group to keep its chief executive to help stabilize the troubled insurer? At least $7 million a year.
World markets recover poise after big sell-off
Op-ed Columns
Don’t tell it to Right-wing demagogues.
Free-Market Death Panels
“Death panels”? I’ll tell you about death panels. My husband faced one some years ago, and it didn’t involve any government bureaucrat. It was run by our private insurer, the sort of corporate entity that foes of health care reform say will give you anything you want.
Bob Herbert has been on a roll lately. What is he on?
This Is Reform?
It’s never a contest when the interests of big business are pitted against the public interest. So if we manage to get health care “reform” this time around it will be the kind of reform that benefits the very people who have given us a failed system, and thus made reform so necessary.
Robert Kuttner wonders where the Liberal protesters are.
Obama Keeps Progressives Silent on Health Care
Something is severely off when economically stressed Americans confront members of Congress about “death panels” in the Obama health plan. The rumors, fanned by talk radio with a little help from Republicans, are false and even delusional. Yet the anger, if misdirected, is genuine.
People should be plenty angry about their jobs and their mortgages and their health insurance. With health care, however, virtually all of the fears attributed to the Obama health reform efforts more accurately describe the existing private system.
It is private insurance companies that ration care by deciding what is covered and what is not. Private plans limit which doctor and hospital you can use, define “preexisting conditions” and make insurance unaffordable for tens of millions. For many, all this can cause suffering and sometimes even death. Our one oasis of socialized medicine, Medicare, has the most choice and the least exclusion.
For Afghan Women, Rights Again at Risk
When the United States and its allies went to war against the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, “liberating the women of Afghanistan” was often cited as one of the reasons to seek “regime change.” More than seven years later, however, the situation for Afghan women remains dire.
The views expressed in this column are solely those of Richard Cohen
What Is ‘Palinism?’
The former governor’s claims are either boldly demagogic or just plain loopy, but will any Republican stand up to her?
Around The Nation
Is this the new favorite leisure now? And why is the Secret Service allowing this?
Twelve Carry Guns — Including Assault Rifle — Outside Obama Event
About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.
No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform.
Is this going to be fun or just bizarre? Maybe both.
Tom DeLay joins ‘Dancing With the Stars’ cast
In a move startling even by the outlandish standards of reality television, “Dancing With the Stars” announced Monday that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — a pugnacious politician under indictment for alleged money-laundering — will be a contestant in the upcoming season.
Have you seen some strange spending on your credit card lately?
3 Indicted in Theft of 130 Million Card Numbers
In an indictment, the Justice Department said that Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami and two unnamed Russian conspirators made off with more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from late 2006 to early 2008.
Prosecutors called it the largest case of computer crime and identity theft ever prosecuted. According to the government, the culprits infiltrated the computer networks of Heartland Payment Systems, a payment processor in Princeton, N.J.; 7-Eleven; Hannaford Brothers, a regional supermarket chain; and two unnamed national retailers.
Mrs Sanford takes her turn. (At the microphone)
Notes on a Scandal
“[M]y husband has got some issues that he needs to work on, about happiness and what happiness means. You wish it wouldn’t come to a crisis like this, but I think when a lot of men get to this midpoint in life, they start asking questions that they probably should have asked a long time ago.” A former investment banker and a stay-at-home, full-time mother, Sanford doesn’t share her husband’s angst. “Midlife aging is different for men than for women,” she says. “Mark is worried about what his next job is. He worries about making money, running for office again, his legacy. I know my legacy is my children. I don’t worry about that.”
Shouldn’t we seriously consider a moratorium on all these executions?
Supreme Court Orders New Look at Death Row Case
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal trial court in Georgia to consider the case of Troy Davis, who is on death row in state prison there for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer. The case has attracted international attention, and 27 former prosecutors and judges had filed a brief supporting Mr. Davis.
Seven of the witnesses against Mr. Davis have recanted, and several people have implicated the prosecution’s main witness as the actual killer of the officer, Mark MacPhail.
Around The World
There is no equivocation here: We are completely withdrawing form Iraq.
US troops to return to Iraq despite Barack Obama’s withdrawal plan
The US military plans to send thousands of American soldiers back to the oil-rich north of Iraq to prevent a civil war between Arabs and Kurds.
The emergency move, which partially reverses a recent drawing- down, is the first major sign that President Obama’s withdrawal plan may not work. He wants all US combat troops out of Iraq within 12 months.
Pakistan Captures Taliban Spokesman
Security forces captured the Pakistani Taliban’s top spokesman in an operation near the Afghan border, a government official said Tuesday, dealing another blow to the militants following the reported killing of their leader earlier this month.
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The Confluence 