How insane, really, is Sarah Palin? To be honest, I don’t want to pollute this blog by posting this, but I still will. Look at this map of upcoming reelection fights, posted on her Facebook page. It “targets” House Democratis in tough districts who voted for health care reform.
“We’ll aim for these races and many others,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington. Please go to sarahpac.com and join me in the fight.”
With the whole saga about health care reform finally coming to a close, the next legislative priority on President Obama’s and the Congressional Democrats’ agenda is financial regulatory reform. One only needs to think back to the credit crisis of 2008-2009 to get a sense of the urgency of these measures. This time, moreover, some Republicans seem on board.
Buoyed by passage of landmark health care legislation, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress said Wednesday that an overhaul of financial regulations was the next legislative priority.
The legislation appeared to be gaining momentum, as two crucial Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Bob Corker of Tennessee, said they expected the overhaul to pass this year even though they had concerns about some of its provisions.
A Democratic strategy appeared to be emerging: expressing confidence that the measure would pass and urging Republicans to help shape legislation that they could support, rather than trying to block it.
(…)
Described as the most sweeping change in financial rules since the Depression, the legislation would create a council to detect and avert systemic risks to the financial system; expand the Federal Reserve’s oversight over the largest and most interconnected financial companies; create a consumer financial protection agency to regulate mortgages and credit cards; and regulate many of the over-the-counter derivatives that amplified the risk-taking that brought about the 2008 financial crisis.
(…)
In contrast to the economic stimulus and the health care overhaul, where the White House outlined broad goals but largely left it to Congress to shape the legislation, the administration has been intensely engaged in drafting the legislation.
Maarten van Rossem zet Ayaan Hirsi Ali op haar plek en heeft kritiek op de verslaggeving door de NOS van haar recente bezoek aan Nederland. Ik ben het een keer helemaal met hem eens.
Waar ze vroeger nog een serieus te nemen geluid over vrouwenmishandeling in sommige Islamitische culturen bracht, is ze nu totaal doorgeslagen. Hoever Hirsi Ali tegenwoordig van het pad af is, was te lezen in het interview met haar van twee weken geleden in de VK. Uit dat interview blijkt dat ze dezer dagen rondhangt in een soort jetsetomgeving vol radicale rechts-conservatieve socialites, waaronder zelfs George W. Bush en Dick en Lynn Cheney.
Amazing track from the new Oversteps album. Reviews here and here. Autechre is currently doing a tour in Europe: on April 1 they’ll perform @ Berghain, April 7 in the Melkweg in Amsterdam.
According to the New York Times and the Huffington Post, with the signing of the Health Care Bill the United States have finally left the “Age of Reagan”.
Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians havecalled the age of Reagan.
Speaking to an ebullient audience of Democratic legislators and White House aides at the bill-signing ceremony on Tuesday, Mr. Obama claimed that health reform would “mark a new season in America.” He added, “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”
On Sunday, House Minority Leader John Boehmer gave a raving mad speech in response to the passing of the Health Care Bill. Here’s a take on how it could serve as an inspiration for a new GOP campaign slogan (with just a minor alteration to the famous Will.i.am campaign ad!):
Volgens een enquête van de EO althans. Wel moet gezegd worden dat de enquete totaal niet representatief is met slechts 148 ondervraagden. De Volkskrant neemt dit uiteraard gretig over, want het past goed in de overduidelijk aanwezige strategie om Balkenende op alle fronten aan te vallen. Ook komen ze weer met Schreier-Pierik op de proppen en dat begint toch wel een beetje een oud verhaal te worden. Hier kun je ook een kanttekening bij plaatsen:
Vooral in Brabant en Limburg is de ontevredenheid groot. Alternatieve lijsttrekkers die door de geënqueteerden worden genoemd zijn Herman Wijffels, Gerd Leers, Cees Veerman en Jan Kees de Jager.
Aangezien Balkenende leider der refo’s is en ze daar in Brabant en Limburg natuurlijk sneller klaar mee zijn.
Free Pussy Riot
Peaches, the twenty-first century torchbearer of feminist punk, just released a video and track in support of Pussy Riot, the Russian female anarc...
EHRM handhaaft SGP-uitspraak Hoge Raad
Dat ging nog best snel: het Europese Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens (EHRM) heeft zich uitgesproken over de vrouwen uitsluitende praktijk van de S...
