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08 Feb 2011 02:26

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Politics: Max Headroom: Reporters talk about their Egypt battle scars

  • Somehow, these guys made it out. Perhaps one of the most harrowing reporter stories to come out of Egypt this week comes from Fox News reporter Greg Palkot and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who were smoked out of the building they were staying in, only to get caught in a crowd of pro-Mubarak supporters. Palkot has some pretty severe injuries. Yikes. A lot of reporters probably were put in situations similar to this, and it’s good to note that their hard work kept the cameras on the country as things started to waver. source
  • Anderson Cooper gets scared, tooIn one of the more harrowing clips from the past week, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he of getting punched in the face by some pro-Mubarak supporters, is in some random room trying to report the news. He left the country not long after this episode, a victim of having a well-known face in an area not kind to journalists.
  • Are things really getting better?On tonight’s show, Rachel Maddow brought up the plight of Ayman Mohyeldin, the Al Jazeera reporter who was detained by authorities for a few hours before finally getting released. Mohyeldin’s words, Maddow argues, show that the narrative doesn’t support what’s actually happening in Egypt. It’s way worse.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 22:16

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Politics: Why you’re paying less in taxes than you were two years ago

  • 13% drop in income tax payments since Bush’s last year in office
  • 33% decrease in taxes paid by corporations since 2008; that’s a big drop
  • 1950 the last time taxes (as a percentage of the entire US economy) were this low source
  • » But don’t get too excited. While lower taxes may sound nice on paper, the real reason for this drop isn’t as much due to policy changes as it is the recession. See, people (and corporations) are making a whole lot less money than they were a few years ago; hence, they’re paying less in taxes. And that sucks for just about everybody involved. However, Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota places a lot of the blame on our nation’s tax code itself, calling it a “simply indefensible” policy that’s “hemorrhaging revenue.” Still, our primary focus should probably be on pulling our economy out of the toilet. Then we can fix the tax code.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 20:20

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Politics: Obama tries mending profitable fences with Chamber of Commerce

  • If there is a reason you don’t believe that this is the time to get off the sidelines — to hire and invest — I want to know about it. I want to fix it.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking to the Chamber of Commerce today about the business role in building an economic recovery. Obama’s meeting with the organization was an attempt to mend fences. “I’m here in the interest of being more neighborly,” he said. “I strolled over from across the street, and, look, maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start. But I’m going to make up for it.” The speech, which balanced profit-making motives with Obama’s desire to see business actually hire people, didn’t go over very well with some. Just listen to this jerk: “I think it’s a little outside the bounds to suggest that if we hire people we don’t need,” said Buffalo Supply executive Harold Jackson, “there will be more demand.” We think Harold Jackson is full of crap. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 13:18

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Politics: Tony Blair has his say on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

  • It is founded on a different view of the relationship between religion and public policy than most people in secular societies would want.
  • Former British PM Tony Blair • The oft-maligned former leader speaking about the Muslim Brotherhood, whose likely involvement in forming a new Egyptian government is causing some angst for advocates of secularism. Blair suggested the Brotherhood was not extremist like some groups in other countries, but that while religion had an important place in society, he “wouldn’t want to live in even a democratic theocracy.” Can you even call something democracy if one entity officially has omnipotent control over the people?  source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 11:00

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Politics: California Rep. Jane Harman ditches Congress for pure wonkery

  • what California Democrat Jane Harman will likely reveal plans tomorrow to vacate her seat in Congress.
  • why She’ll be the new President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center in DC. Ah, think tanks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2011 20:38

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Politics: Obama on Egypt: He’s sure they’ll “work together with us.”

  • What I want is a representative government in Egypt and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, they will have a government in Egypt that will work together with us.
  • Barack Obama • Talking to Bill O’Reilly pre-Super Bowl. The conversation of course took a turn towards the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Obama had this to say: “But here’s the thing that we have to understand, there are a whole bunch of secular folks in Egypt, there are a whole bunch of educators and civil society in Egypt that wants to come to the fore as well. So it’s important for us not to say that our own only two options are either the Muslim Brotherhood or a suppressed people.” Obama wants to see an orderly transition that reaches everyone, not just Islamists or any other group, in hopes that the region doesn’t radicalize. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Feb 2011 21:21

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Politics: Sign of the apocalypse: Matt Drudge joins Twitter (finally)

  • Welcome to Twitter, Matt Drudge, a guy who may be the only person on the planet to claim that Craigslist has a better site design than his, while still scoring similar traffic. Hey Drudge, we’ll buy you a book on CSS if you want it. It’ll make your site load faster. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

04 Feb 2011 20:44

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Politics: Virginia Thomas: From judge’s wife to activist to lobbyist

Yes, Virginia, she is a lobbyist. The wife of Clarence Thomas, who recently left a gig as leader of a Tea Party-leaning group, is now wining and dining GOP legislators. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2011 01:04

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Politics: Judges spar over constitutionality of health care reform

  • tuesday A federal judge in Florida found the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision unconstitutional and struck down the whole law, saying the provision invalidated everything. Republicans rejoiced.
  • thursday A federal judge in Mississippi, tackling a similar lawsuit, contended that there wasn’t sufficient standing for him to take the case, and threw it out. Democrats rejoiced. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2011 00:57

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Politics: Conservatives launch anti-President Romney campaign

  • You know how sometimes a movement will arise to try and draft a reluctant candidate to run for President? Well, this is the opposite: a movement to dissuade an eager candidate from running. The problem with Romney, according to the good folks at DontDoItMitt.com, is that he’s just not conservative enough. The site says that he “pushed through [his] own version of nationalized health care in Massachusetts” (an odd charge, seeing as “nationalized” refers explicitly to something that’s not state-level), and begs him “not to take down the entire Republican party.” Maybe if they’re successful, Romney will bow out gracefully and decline a run. We’re thinking probably not. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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