Joe Scott 3: The Body Politic

Pawlenty goes after Sanford

30 June 2009 |permalink | email article

While Republicans have avoided the Mark Sanford scandal or cast it as a personal, not professional, issue Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) has shown no such reluctance. On Sunday he offered one of the sharpest rebukes yet, saying he was… read full story

Golden State morass, IOUs loom

29 June 2009 |permalink | email article

California, deadlocked over a $24.3 billion hole in its budget, is hurtling toward a financial apocalypse by mid-week.

How has it happened, the San Francisco Chronicle asked, that this nation-state of 33 million with a budget larger than most… read full story

The Sotomayor verdict

28 June 2009 |permalink | email article

A majority of Americans, despite determined conservative opposition, want the Senate to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer as the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found her “about right” ideologically.

[Update] The… read full story

Michelle Obama: new Eleanor Roosevelt?

26 June 2009 |permalink | email article

SHE wants to be part of events that “have a purpose and a message” – and that parallel the President’s agenda, Lois Romano reported yesterday in The Washington Post. A woman of substance with a background in law, public… read full story

Cry not for Argentina but the GOP

25 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Not since the mysterious disappearance of Judge Joseph Crater 79 years ago has there been anything quite as bizarre as South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford’s summer tryst in Argentina – a personal and family embarrassment followed by a… read full story

Republicans don’t get it

24 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Republicans are cheering about results from three national polls which show that President Obama’s approval rating is down. They won’t talk about the same polls that find opinions about the GOP are at an all-time low.

Americans trust Obama… read full story

Villaraigosa out, advantage Brown

23 June 2009 |permalink | email article

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unexpectedly announced Monday afternoon that he would not run for governor in 2010 after strongly flirting with the idea, and just ten days before being sworn in for a second term. Whether his less than… read full story

Maher rambles on

22 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The political comedian continues his weekly HBO rants but the return flak by many nationally respected liberals confirms that he’s lost whatever groove he may have had.

I mean, for Maher to accuse Democrats of selling out and suggesting… read full story

Why is Bill Maher so angry?

19 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The profane comedian, who presented an atheist view of religion in his movie Religulous, Is now taking on President Obama about health care and the economy, and expressing displeasure with the pace with which he‘s accomplishing his policy objectives.

California: forget U.S. bailout

18 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The Obama administration has spurned pleas by California for emergency aid despite warnings of a fast approaching “fiscal meltdown” caused by a budget shortfall. At high-level meetings federal officials remain worried that a bailout of the Golden State would… read full story

Ling and Lee: will diplomacy work?

17 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Laura Long and Euna Lee, the American journalists detained after straying into North Korea three months ago and facing 12 years’ hard labor await their fate, as efforts to obtain their release remain veiled in secrecy.

Neither was working… read full story

Congress, why free health care?

16 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Even as President Obama launched his campaign to sell the American Medical Association on his health care overhaul Senate Republicans have renewed their long familiar line of attack.

Senate Majority Whip John Kyl introduced a new phrase, “rationed medical… read full story

L.A.‘s Hall of Justice: doomed?

15 June 2009 |permalink | email article

A cornerstone of Los Angeles County’s criminal justice system for almost 70 years, and a venue for some of the city’s most notorious trials involving high profile defendants like Bugsy Siegel, Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan, suddenly faces an… read full story

Iran: hope for real change fades

14 June 2009 |permalink | email article

For a brief, shining moment it appeared that President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world, which saw Lebanon denying an electoral victory to Hezbollah, might have sparked a “green revolution” in mobilizing young people and notably women to become… read full story

GOP punts on national security concerns

12 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Republicans have long touted themselves as the national security party. But, with the Democrats now in power, that reputation has been shattered.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican Bush appointee, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have thrust… read full story

Newt slams Obama and, yes, Reagan

11 June 2009 |permalink | email article

This week it was Gingrich’s pompous speech to the Senate and House Republican campaign committees which caught my attention. He proudly asserted that “I am not a citizen of the world,” adding “I think the entire concept is intellectually… read full story

Virginia, Iran and more

10 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Chairman, was the early front runner to win the party’s gubernatorial nomination in Virginia yesterday. But State Sen. Creigh Deeds, surging from third place with a stunning close, beat both him and state… read full story

Arnold is no Reagan

09 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The former governor had a favorite motto to describe California’s perilous budget crisis during two terms in Sacramento: “cut, sweeze and trim.”

Unfortunately, Gov. Schwarzenegger has been unable to come to grips with the crisis which finds the state… read full story

O44, B43: words often contrast

08 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The historic Islamic world speech by President Obama last week dealt with topics his predecessor, George W. Bush, also addressed frequently.

The Wall Street Journal summarized their thoughts on key topics, notably different on Iraq, Palestinians and Iran.

Bush… read full story

When Sarah Channels Rush

07 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The Alaska governor’s introduction the other night in Anchorage of radio talk-show host Michael Reagan is revealing in what it says about her increasingly raw, hard edged militancy which the radical right finds so compelling.

She opened by praising… read full story

Obama, Limbaugh and the right

05 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The President’s historic Cairo speech will be remembered as the first in memory to address issues of concern to every person on the planet. There’s criticism, not just from Israel but from within the Muslim world. But intelligent comment… read full story

Obama in Cairo

04 June 2009 |permalink | email article

The President, in an historic speech at Cairo University today, pledged to “seek a new beginning” between the U.S. and Muslims around the world. His aim was concise: America and the Islamic world should drop their suspicions of one… read full story

Sonia vs. the right

03 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Judge Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, began the Capitol Hill ritual yesterday as Senate Democrats moved to defuse conservative Republican criticism that a remark she once made suggesting that a Latina like herself might have better judgment than… read full story

Reagan and the Great Recession

02 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Paul Krugman blames Reagan for signing the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act in 1982 which turned the modest-sized troubles of savings-and-loan industry from a problem into a catastrophe.

The Nobel Laureate quoted the President: “All in all, I think… read full story

Sonia: GOP intramural fight

01 June 2009 |permalink | email article

Rush Limbaugh at times last week seemed stunned by the blow back among conservative Republicans about his effort to torpedo the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sotomayor.  He, like Newt Gingrich and Tom Tancredo, have called her a racist… read full story