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Israel and liberal Jews are moving apart.

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Jacob Weisberg - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - One might well fill a book with all the possible explanations for rising liberal, and in particular Jewish liberal, qualms about Israel. But the blame has to start with Israel's occupation of Arab lands and its settlements policy. Israel never meant to take over the West Bank and Gaza—it got stuck with them after the 1967 war. But decades of harsh occupation have made dispossessed Palestinians, the majority of whom have long favored a two-state solution, the sympathetic victims in the conflict. Revisionist Zionism—the Biblically based claim that Israel has a right to the territories—has wrought tremendous damage to the Israel's moral standing. Encouraging religious and political extremists to settle in those territories set a wedge between Israel and its liberal supporters, who see annexation as both impractical and immoral.

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What Are We About to Pass?

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - Mar. 21 (News Analysis) - It’s coming down to the wire, but Democratic leaders now predict they have more than the 216 votes needed to pass historic health-care reform later today. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats have also reportedly signed on to the bill after working out language for an executive order from Obama that would clarify that taxpayer money would not be used to fund abortions. House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told Meet the Press earlier that the holdout number is in “the low single digits” but now Stupak and the others give the Dems a majority. The House will have three major votes today, the first on the rules of debate, then a vote on the reconciliation package, and a vote on the original Senate bill, expected after 6 p.m. Will pre-existing conditions be covered? What's the fine for not having insurance? Which states got sweetheart deals? A crib sheet to the health-care bill the House will vote on today.

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Health Care Vote: Live Updates

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Mar. 21 (News) - Today is THE DAY for health care reform, and this page will bring you all the breaking news, tweets, photos, and video, all in one place. Flip through the latest major news in the slideshow below, or scroll down to the Twitter module below for streaming updates from HuffPost's reporting team as well as members of Congress, top journalists, analysts, and pundits.

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Whip Counts Now Show Democrats With 216+ Solid Yes Votes

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FiveThirtyEight - By Nate Silver - Mar. 21 (News Report) - Lots of action in the last 20 minutes or so, so let's go ahead and start a fresh thread. David Dayen: listed 215 yes votes earlier, but did not account for Paul Kanjorski or Joe Donnelly, who have announced their intentions to vote for the bill in the last half-hour or so. That would bring his count to 217. Dayen's total does include Bobby Rush, who still insisted on calling himself undecided as of this morning and to my knowledge has yet to revise that position. So call it 216 if you want to be conservative. New York Times: This appears to be the most up-to-date count. They list 218 yes votes, counting Rush, or 217 without him. CBS News: They also list 216 yes votes, not counting Rush -- but also not counting Kanjorski. So this should be read as 217. The Hill: lists 214 yes votes -- but three of their four undecideds -- Kanjorski, Cooper, Sanchez -- have since come out in favor of the bill, which would bring their total to 217 as well.

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Top 10 FACTS to Know About Health Care Reform

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Mar. 20 (News Analysis) - PolitiFact has checked hundreds of claims about health care reform and read the plans under consideration by Congress. As the Democrats move toward a final vote, we've selected 10 facts about the actual health care legislation that every voter should know.

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It's Complicated!

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FiveThirtyEight - By Nate Silver - Mar. 20 (News Analysis) - Per Jonathan Cohn, Steny Hoyer says "clearly we believe we have the votes" and per Josh Kraushaar, Chris Carney (PA-10) will now vote for the bill. Everything looks to be back on track. The Intrade contract -- now at 85 percent -- might in fact be a little cheap. Things look to be stabilizing a hair for the Democrats as the caucus made a smart decision not to use the "deem-and-pass" strategy to cast their health care votes, as pro-choice Democrats appear to be comfortable with the idea that Obama will issue an Executive Order on the abortion language (although it's unclear how many Stupak votes this will persuade) and as debates over Medicare spending levels appear to be resolved. I'd say odds for passage are up over 80 percent again -- but obviously this changes on an hour-to-hour and even minute-to-minute basis.

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Smoking guns, dark secrets spilled in YouTube-Viacom filings

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Ars Technica - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - It can't be good news for YouTube's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit when plaintiff Viacom unearthed one YouTube founder telling another: "'jawed, please stop putting stolen videos on the site." But YouTube says that Viacom itself paid 18 different marketers to upload material to YouTube... and from Kinko's, no less.

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SEC investigating CNBC host Jim Cramer's TheStreet.com

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Mar. 20 (News) - TheStreet.com, the financial Web site founded by loudmouth stock picker and TV personality Jim Cramer, is being investigated by the SEC. The publicly traded company attracted the attention of regulators because of accounting woes at a former subsidiary called Promotions.com, TheStreet.com said yesterday.

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A Final Weekend of Whoppers?