An amazing photo from shuttle Endeavor’s final launch this morning.
Full slide show here.
Is it an accident that both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have come out of the gate stumbling over whether there’s a place for individual mandates in reforming America’s dysfunctional health care system? Read More
Donald Trump announces he’s bagging on running for president, apparently conceding that his butt really hurts when it gets kicked this hard.
In a parking lot or sidewalk this morning Newt Gingrich ditched his support for mandates after endorsing them … yesterday.
Fresh off Newt Gingrich calling Paul Ryan Medicare Phase Out Plan “right wing social engineering”, Ryan has struck back at Newt: “With allies like that, who needs the left?”
In a sense it’s less Ryan that Newt has hurt as a lot of freshman Republicans sitting in swing districts in the midwest. It’s a great pivot for thousands of Democratic ads: Congressman X voted for the plan that even Newt Gingrich called radical right wing social engineering.
Newt of course is already trying to walk it back.
It’s amazing the kind of Russian Roulette some people are willing to play with the nation’s future. The US hit its debt limit Monday morning. As of right now the US can’t borrow money to meet its current obligations. So the Treasury must now start devising bailing wire and bubble gum techniques to keep the country out of default.
Capitol Hill Republicans say they’re in no rush to raise the debt ceiling to keep the United States from its first default in US history.
Yesterday presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the Ryan Medicare Phase Out plan was “radical change from the right” that America wasn’t ready for. Not exactly a good way to start the week when House Republicans want to relaunch their plan to phase out Medicare. Now the big walk back begins.
We’re getting lots of signs that next week is going to be Medicare Phase Out week in DC. Specifically, after taking some rough hits and public defections on his Medicare Phase Out proposal Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is queuing up an aggressive relaunch of his plan. Expect of course a strong counter from the Dems, who seem to feel they have traction on the issue. But here’s Newt Gingrich this morning on Meet the Press saying Ryan’s plan is “radical change from the right” and “too big a jump for the country.”
From the WSJ …
A law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, was taken into police custody after being removed from an airplane at Kennedy Airport.
According to the official, Mr. Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a cleaning woman onto his bed and sodomized her at about noon Saturday inside his room at the Sofitel Hotel near Times Square.
Read more (sub.req.).
It should be noted that, Strauss-Kahn was (I trust the past tense is appropriate) also the frontrunner to be the Socialist Party’s candidate for president in the next election in France. So in addition to the alleged crime, this is a bombshell of staggering proportions not only in the world of global finance but French and European politics as well.
Late Update: The Times reports that the Manhattan DA’s office plans to bring formal charges against Strauss-Kahn early tomorrow morning. So it doesn’t sound like they have much doubt they have a strong case.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who announced his candidacy for President today, just told Chris Matthews on Hardball that he, too, would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Watch.