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Conservatives Rework Rhetoric After Loss in NY Special

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Nov. 05 (News Report) - Jim Kelly walked into the lounge of the Hotel Saranac, his red tie undone and flapping against his shirt. He sighed. He plopped into a chair. “Four thousand votes,” he said. “That couldn’t fill up one side of seats at Shea

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Anatomy of an Ethics Leak

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mike Lillis - Oct. 30 (News Analysis) - The news that “dozens” of House lawmakers are under scrutiny by ethics investigators — reported last night by The Washington Post — will likely stir a small storm in Washington, particularly on an otherwise quiet Friday when Congress is out of session.

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Senators Slog While Unemployed Suffer

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mary Kane - Oct. 26 (News Report) - A protracted and very partisan Senate skirmish has left hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans without unemployment benefits — an impasse that Democrats leaders are hoping to break this week. They have their work cut out.

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No Afghanistan ‘Checkposts’ Abandoned While Pak Military Offensive Proceeds ?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Oct. 19 (News Analysis) - "A piece in the Pakistan paper the News accused the U.S. military of taking the inexplicable step of abandoning “checkposts” on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border while the Pakistani military offensive in nearby Waziristan intensifies. According to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s staff, it’s just not true".

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Tea Party Patrons Point New Recruits Toward 2010

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Oct. 05 (News Report) - For months, liberal researchers from the Center for American Progress to Firedoglake to the Rachel Maddow Show have pored over the financial records of libertarian tycoon David Koch to see just how deep his influence ran within the Tea Party movement.

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Clinton: Not ‘Either/Or’ Between Negotiating With Iran and Supporting Dissidents «

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Oct. 05 (News Report) - Asked at the George Washington University forum about whether the Obama administration was effectively undermining the Iranian opposition by negotiating with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the choice was not “either/or.” Citing the U.S. experience throughout the Cold War of “always press[ing]” the Soviet Union on [...]

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Finance Committee Dems Are No Rubber Stamp for Health Reform

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:27:09 -0700

Washington Independent - Oct. 05 - With so much speculation on whether Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) will support the health reform bill finalized by the Senate Finance Committee last week, the world might be surprised to learn that some panel Democrats are also wary of the legislation.

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Experts Weigh in on Obama’s Explanation of Iran’s Nuclear Facility

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Flanked by the French president and the British premier, President Obama on Friday dramatically stated that the “size and configuration” of a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the clerical city of Qom make it “inconsistent with a peaceful program.” Several independent experts believe the facility is most likely being constructed to support a nuclear weapons program, especially as Iran’s concealment of it comes after years of nondisclosure and obstruction of inspections. But even those experts believe that the “size and configuration” of the facility does not necessarily mean it could only be used to build an atomic bomb.

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Grayson, POGO Use ACORN Defunding Push to Go After Military Contractors

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Sep. 22 (Breaking News) - Ryan Grim has the story, I have stifled guffaws. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between [...]

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» Latino Leaders Riled by Role of Immigration in Health Care Debate

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:41:17 -0700

Washington Independent - Sep. 22 - Current proposals could even prevent legal immigrants from obtaining health care.

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Supreme Court Eyes Decades of Campaign Finance Laws

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Sep. 09 (News Analysis) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that could reverse major gains made in recent decades to reduce the influence of corporate money on federal elections. At first blush, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission appears to

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Memos Suggest Legal Cherry-Picking in Justifying Torture

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Aug. 27 (Special Report) - On the same day that the government produced the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report on interrogations, it also turned over seven more memos and letters from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

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Obtained: The RNC’s Health Care Survey

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - Aug. 27 (Comment) - I just chatted with Raymond Denny, the La Center, Washington man who received the RNC’s “2009 Future of American Health Survey,” which alleged that President Obama’s health reform plans might discriminate about Republicans. Here’s the survey question: “I’ve been getting these things for years,” said Denny, who opened the letter with his wife Louise, “getting them [...]

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Conservatives Find Town Hall Strategy in Leftist Text

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Aug. 12 (Special Report) - Protesters outside a health care town hall meeting held by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) in Tampa last Thursday (YouTube) Michael Patrick Leahy’s self-published conservative manifesto is coming off the presses this week, and not a moment too soon. “The

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Blackwater Heir Wants to Keep State Dept. Security Contract

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Aug. 10 (News Report) - Even as a wrongful-death lawsuit moves forward against the controversial private security company formerly known as Blackwater, the firm seeks to renew its contract with the State Department to guard diplomats when the deal expires next year.

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Feingold Set to Oppose Further Troop Boost for Afghanistan

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Aug. 05 (News Report) - “I don’t think the case has been effectively made for continuing to send more and more troops into Afghanistan,” Feingold said in a Wednesday interview. “I am very unhappy with the answers I’ve received about the issue of whether constantly increasing troops is helping the situation in Pakistan or making it worse. I suspect it could be making things worse.” Feingold fears that increasing troops in Afghanistan might lead insurgents to cross the border into Pakistan, which is engaged in its own fight against a distinct but affiliated insurgency,

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Military Commissions Debate Rages On in Senate

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Jul. 29 (News Report) - According to David Kris, assistant attorney general in the national security division of the Justice Department, the task force is “more than half way through its review of the 240 detainees” at Guantanamo, and expects to complete its review by October

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Band of Senate Dems Pressuring Obama on Cram-Down

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Mike Lillis - Jul. 23 (News) - Roughly three months after Senate lawmakers killed legislation empowering homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy, some upper-chamber Democrats are looking to revive the corpse. They hope to pressure the White House into spending valuable political capital on a cause fallen by the wayside.

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Lindsey Graham: GOP Isn’t Just ‘the Party of Short White Guys’

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Jul. 17 (News Report) - Despite his apparent disagreement with her on a range of issues, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is emerging as one of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s biggest supporters. Perhaps because it’s clear she’ll be confirmed and he wants to convince

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Gun Rights Advocates Hope to Flip Red-State Dems on Sotomayor

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Jul. 14 (News Report) - For Republicans and many movement conservatives, the key moment of the first day of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings was not the blistering opening statement of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee who bulldozed through the most controversial parts of her record. It was the jokey, resigned statement of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who regretted that President Barack Obama had given the Senate a candidate who could not be stopped.

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Only Forceful Action Can Turn Foreclosure Crisis Tide

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Mary Kane - Jul. 13 (News) - The time may be ripe for a shift in strategy as the foreclosure machine grinds on, and new foreclosure notices reach the troubling milestone of 10,000 per day.

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Band of House Dems Revisits Cramdown

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Mike Lillis - Jul. 10 (News) - The Obama administration has all but abandoned it, and the Senate has already voted it down. But a proposal to allow struggling homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy got a boost Thursday from a small band of House Democrats convinced that voluntary mortgage modifications aren't alone solving the housing crisis.

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Fight Brews Between Civil Liberties Groups and Obama

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Jul. 01 (News Analysis) - It was a blind quote hitting the civil-libertarian solar plexus. Bad enough that, as ProPublica’s Dafna Linzner and The Washington Post’s Peter Finn reported late on Friday afternoon, the Obama administration was readying an executive order for a system for preventive detention in terrorism cases.

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Obama’s Sideline Strategy May Signal Shift in U.S. Democracy Policy

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Jun. 19 (News Report) - It turned out money couldn’t buy a revolution. After the 2005 election of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Bush administration sought about $75 million from Congress with which it hoped to recruit or support alternative voices in Iran to push the Islamic Republic in a more democratic direction. While dissidents in Iran were significantly weaker than during the 1999 student protests — a squelched moment of apparent liberalism that The Economist wrote could be a “second revolution” — there were still prominent voices for reform, like Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and journalist Akbar Ganji. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who ultimately got around $66 million from Congress, said the money would go to “a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people.”

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Congress Unlikely to Reform Root Cause of Economic Crisis

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mary Kane - Jun. 09 (Special Report) - Not long after foreclosures started to take off in 2007 and the mortgage market’s collapse began to cripple the economy, one lesson seemed obvious: The predatory lending practices that led to the crisis had to be reined in.

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