Archive for July, 2010

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ACLU: If you liked the Bush/Cheney Unitary Executive, you’ll love the Obama Unitary Executive.

By mw | Related entries in Civil Liberties, Constitution, Democrats, Obama

This week the ACLU released a disturbing report documenting the permanent enshrinement of the Bush/Cheney definition of the Unitary Executive by the Obama administration. With the tacit acceptance of the Democratic Congress, the balance of power between executive and other branches continues to shift heavily to the executive. While distressing, the report is unsurprising as it was clear in the first few weeks of the new administration that Obama’s campaign rhetoric of rolling back the Bush/Cheney power grab was just that – empty campaign rhetoric.

July 31st, 2010 | Permalink| 24 Comments »

Do you ever wonder how other countries see our 2012 presidential selection process?

By mw | Related entries in Barack, Media, Palin, Video

The future of all mainstream media news is Taiwanese animation. This piece from NMA News in Taiwan explains our 2012 Presidential election prelims to a Chinese audience.

July 31st, 2010 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Poll: Obama’s Healthcare Reform Opposition Waning

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Health Care, health care reform, Legislation, Obama, Polls

As this issue becomes less politicized, more folks seem to warm to the legislation. Wait…what??? To me this is encouraging. Of course, we all know there are problems with the legislation that passed, but I think we can also collectively agree that the current system is completely unsustainable. So some type of fix had to [...]

July 29th, 2010 | Permalink| 14 Comments »

Gallup: How To Save Social Security? Remove The Cap!

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Money, Social Programs, Social Security

If you’re lucky enough to earn a lot of income, you knew this was coming. After all, you only get taxed for Social Security on the first $106,800 of your income. Anything after that draws no SS tax. So, basically, while the rest of us get taxed on our entire income, you all pay into [...]

July 29th, 2010 | Permalink| 17 Comments »

Prediction Time – Election 2010 Open Thread

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Democrats, Republicans

I’m not going to prognosticate too much today, but I will say that I think the talk of an electoral armageddon are severely overblown. Personally, I don’t see how the Repubs can take back either the House or the Senate. Still, Obama is underwater when it comes to his approval numbers, so he can’t help [...]

July 28th, 2010 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Open Thread

By Jacob | Related entries in News

We’re very sad here in the Jacob household (New Jersey). We took the dog out for a walk and she burst into flame. I have no idea what to tell the kids. What’s on your mind? Tweet

July 25th, 2010 | Permalink| 18 Comments »

SHOCK: Goldman Sachs Fined Half A Billion By S.E.C.

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Business, Economy, Law, Money, Wall Street

The title says it all, but here’s a bit more detail… From NY Times: Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm, to settle charges of securities fraud linked to mortgage investments. The S.E.C. filed a lawsuit [...]

July 15th, 2010 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Corporations Holding $1.8 Trillion In Profits?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Business, Money

Listen, if a public or private company makes money and wants to keep it close to their chest, that’s their right. But those same businesses can’t then go and collectively fault the White House’s policies for preventing them from hiring more people. And that’s exactly what they’re doing through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and [...]

July 15th, 2010 | Permalink| 18 Comments »

Gridlock Is Good [updated]

By mw | Related entries in Democrats, Fiscal Responsibility, Polls, Republicans, tea party

The bogeyman of “gridlock” will not dissuade voters. While often messy, political gridlock in Washington D.C. can yield very positive results. The poster child of dysfunctional gridlock is the Clinton/Gingrich budget impasse that shut down the government in 1995. Ugly – to be sure. Yet out of that same dynamic during the six years of divided and “gridlocked” government, we got a lot of good, smart governance.

July 13th, 2010 | Permalink| 64 Comments »

Wash Post: Confidence In Politicians Still Low

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Democrats, Republicans

First, take a look at this… And yet the Wash Post leads with this headline: “Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds” Well, I guess if it’s presidential and it bleeds…it leads. Here are some more internal numbers about confidence and it shows how each has slipped over time… First observation…take [...]

July 13th, 2010 | Permalink| 8 Comments »
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