The State of the Union ritual is by now familiar to most Americans. President Obama leads the Democratic side of the chamber to a series of standing ovations for proposals that everybody knows won’t become law. Republicans show their seriousness of purpose by smirking or making stony faces — and by inviting as guests to […]
I’m so surprised, and so happy. There were three or four lines in there early on that I was so happy about, and just so surprised at, that they they brought tears to my eyes. And that last few minutes of the speech–the part that segued from voting rights to gun violence issues and victims, […]
Just a quick observation: for the past couple of days I’ve been seeing in a lot of places, including comments on this blog, the assertion that federal spending has risen 37 percent under Obama — that specific number. Does anyone know where it’s coming from? Because if I look at the actual data, I see […]
An exchange between reader nitu mishra and me in the Comments thread this morning to this AB post of mine from yesterday. nitu mishra: Here’s a good article on 2012 Q4 earnings outlook. http://tinyurl.com/investing002 Me: Ah. If only I could actually understand graphs, without having to stare at them for ten minutes or so first, […]
The National Review scoops the Senate GOP’s next move, and note in particular the last paragraph: Frustrated by the months of non-stop budget fights, Senate Republicans are set to mount a fiscal counteroffensive this week with the reintroduction of a balanced-budget amendment. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and minority whip John Cornyn are leading the […]
Speaker John Boehner @SpeakerBoehner House GOP has voted to replace the president’s sequester twice. Here’s why, courtesy @whitehouse: http://j.mp/WzhNgY #obamaquester — Twitter, h/t Politico, Boehner’s office dubs it “Obamaquester,” Feb. 8 Oh, dear. I guess this is going to be a regular thing. A few days earlier, our dignified House Speaker created the twitter hashtag #spendingstheproblem. […]
About two weeks ago, Dan emailed me with a link to a New York Times article titled “A Flood of Suits Fights Coverage of Birth Control,” by Times reporter Ethan Bronner, published that day. The article began: In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health […]
… but I’m really grateful that so many friends and acquaintances, including Dan C., have let me know. (My favorite, from my friend “A”: “Beverly, someone is sending spam around in your name!”) I’m luckier than the Bush family, though. At least whoever hacked my account just wanted to use my email identity to try […]
And the plain fact is that Obama has reiterated that the same spending and entitlement cuts he offered in 2011 are still on the table, even irking his own base in the process. — Greg Sargent, this morning That really surprised me, so I clicked the link Sargent offers, which turns out to be to […]
In the Comments thread yesterday to my Uwe-Reinhardt-For-Labor-Secretary post, an old fellow “Frayster” (definition: Someone who posted regularly to Slate’s wonderful, late, great “Fray” comments board), Woolley, wrote: I don’t know anything about Uwe and after reading your piece, I still don’t know anything about [him]. Can you tell us why [he] is such a […]