CNN political ticker…

Health care reform is the “foremost economic and moral issue that this administration is determined to deal with,” Joe Biden said during a recent White House meeting. “Our hospitals are cracking under the weight of providing quality healthcare for Americans who lack insurance,” he added. “The status quo is simply unacceptable. Rising costs are crushing [...]

Today is Donklephant’s 4th anniversary, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate then inviting some new writers into the fray to help build the community and make the conversations more diverse. Specifically, I’ve invited 4 daily bloggers and 3 guest bloggers to join. Most of the new authors will be starting immediately, [...]

Some sobering stats when thinking about the fallout from last year. Now entire families, like the one pictured above, are living out of a single hotel. And those are the lucky ones. From Wash Post: Although the number of homeless individuals remained relatively stable between 2007 and 2008, the number of homeless families rose 9 [...]

While I have my doubts about this latest revelation, the obvious question remains: what Democrat would want her support? Especially since many Republicans aren’t too keen on being linked to her either. I mean…really? From Washington Times: The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and heroine to much of the GOP’s base said in an interview she [...]

He’s repeating a lot of what he said earlier in the year, but I still think selling idea of passing health care reform as essential to our long term economic strength is a tough pill to swallow for Independents. What’s more, if this editorial would have dropped a few weeks ago it would have held [...]

Not that it’s a surprise, but are we at the point now where we start talking seriously about prosecutions? Because it’s apparent that Cheney directed the C.I.A. to break the law by concealing information and if the guy can get away with anything as long as it was done for national security reasons, well, what [...]

Well, I think we all figured it would happen, but I didn’t think it would be this incoherent. Yes, politicians are interested in winning and sometimes they can’t deliver on their entire agendas. I’m sure Palin hasn’t fulfilled 100% of her promises in her career. What’s new? But to the broader point about what Palin [...]

With the President’s approval dropping and party ID numbers slipping…should Dems be worried? More at True/Slant.

We all know that universal health care has been incredibly hard to achieve, but budget neutral universal health care? Well, that seems nearly impossible. Well, nearly impossibly politically. So if Obama can pull it off it’ll be a feat indeed. Here’s what he said recently at the G8 Summit, from CQ Politics: Obama indicated he [...]

The following must have resulted after a six martini lunch. Anybody want to guess which Senator put his hand on Brooks’ thigh for an entire dinner? Moreover, anybody want to guess why Brooks let him leave it there?

It’ll be a while before we know if this arrangement will work or not, but I can’t help but think a new G.M. that builds better, greener autos will be competitive in the future. From NY Times: “We deeply appreciate the support we’ve received during this historic transformation and will work hard to repay the [...]

Well, most economists the Wall Street Journal asked, so if that’s not your brand of whiskey, take it for what it’s worth. But as I’ve said recently, there’s really no will for a second stimulus, and only 10% of the first stimulus has been spent so far so why everybody is getting so damned excited [...]

This one’s a puzzler. The potential 2012 candidate who has the least foreign policy knowledge since George W. Bush is the #1 choice for GOPers when it comes to keep us safe? More at True/Slant.

Because while today’s protests in memory of the 10th anniversary of the violence at Tehran University drew a lot of coverage from the Western media, it seems as if it didn’t draw very many Iranians. More at True/Slant.

“There are tens of millions of pro-choice Republicans that are just as good Republicans as I am, and we need to support them. That’s what party building is about, and don’t think that is giving up your principles.” – Haley Barbour testing the waters for 2012 No doubt this is encouraging, but are base Republicans [...]

WHAT????!!!! From NY Times: WASHINGTON — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said. In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, [...]

Whenever Warren talks, people listen, but my gut tells me that a second stimulus is still politically impossible right now. Especially since nearly 90% of the original $787B is left to spend (which Dems are bemoaning) Still, he has some entertaining euphemisms for the first round… “I think that a second one may well be [...]

This article may be three years old, but alarmingly relevent today as both countries are ramping up more than just rhetoric… Daily Telegraph link…

Talked about this recently when Biden admitted that there might be need for a second stimulus package at some point, but that the administration wanted to see how the first round would suss out. Still, looks like Dems need to get their stories straight because they aren’t saying the same things. Read more at True/Slant.