...the federal government does not have a spending problem per se. What it has is a health-care problem...You’d think that a plan that might keep health-care costs down while also improving care would get some love on the Hill. No chance.....
By Joel Greenberg, Washington Post, April 27, 2011
JERUSALEM — A natural gas terminal was blown up in Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, forcing the shutdown of a pipeline supplying gas to Israel and Jordan, according to Egyptian and Israeli officials. It was the second such act of sabotage since the start of the upheaval that toppled former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak....
By Dave Kansas, Market Watch @ Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2011
Durable good orders surged in March, rising a better-than-expected 2.5%, underscoring the strength in the manufacturing side of the economy.
Also, the February figures were revised to show a gain of 0.7% after an initial report of a 0.6% decline. (These data on big-ticket items are notoriously volatile.)
By Nate Silver, Five Thirty Eight @ New York Times, April 26, 2011
A new Gallup/USA Today poll finds significant doubt about whether Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and television personality who is considering a bid for presidency, was born in the United States.....No, this poll is not a joke. We’re several weeks past April Fools’ Day. But it’s one that should encourage us to proceed more cautiously when we see similar numbers reported for President Obama....
Two months ago, Washington was abuzz with speculation that Obama was going to follow Bill Clinton’s reelection strategy and move to the center, forsaking the liberal agenda that cost him control of the House in 2010. Now it is evident that he has decided to come down hard left and wage his reelection fight from his liberal bunker, firing shots at Republican cuts in Medicare, pushing tax increases on the rich, and attributing the gas-price increase to speculators.
By Jordan Fabian, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, April 25, 2011
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said Monday she is not satisfied with the message that the crop of GOP presidential hopefuls has brought to her state.
Haley — a rising star in the party and governor of a key early primary state — said that potential presidential candidates should craft a more positive message rather than just laying out the case against President Obama or describing their path to victory.....
By Anthony Shadid, New York Times, April 25/26, 2011
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian Army stormed the restive city of Dara’a with tanks and thousands of soldiers and carried out arrests in poor towns on the capital’s outskirts on Monday in a sharp escalation of a widening crackdown on Syria’s five-week-old uprising....They said at least 25 people were killed in Dara’a, with bodies strewn in the streets.
The move into the town seemed to signal a new, harrowing chapter in a crackdown that has already killed nearly 400 people....
By Michael D. Shear, The Caucus @ nytimes.com, April 15, 2011
In a city where almost everything seems up for debate these days, Republicans and Democrats in Washington agree on one thing: conservative groups, working outside the normal party structure, outperformed, outhustled and — most of all — outraised Democrats in 2010.
By David Gollust at the State Dept., Voice of America News, April 14, 2011
The U.S. State Department said Thursday it has credible information that Iran is helping the Syrian government quell anti-government protests. Meanwhile a top U.S. diplomat is returning to Bahrain to try to ease a conflict between authorities and protestors there....
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2011
Two journalists, their interpreter and their driver set out to see the damaged Japanese nuclear plant the world has been watching. Along the way, the radiation gauge kept ticking upward.
By Allegra Stratton, Guardian.co.uk, April 15, 2011
US president reverses previously cautious approach to Libyan conflict and signs America up to more muscular intervention in a joint letter with Cameron and Sarkozy.
The 260-167 roll call Thursday by which the House passed a final spending plan with a record $38 billion in cuts from hundreds of domestic programs. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill; a "no" vote is a vote to reject the bill.
Voting yes were 81 Democrats and 179 Republicans.
Voting no were 108 Democrats and 59 Republicans.....
continued with the individual votes arranged by state.
Hey, aren't numbers like that what they call bi-partisan?
By Michael Cooper, New York Times, April 12/13, 2011
President Obama’s fledgling high-speed rail program was dealt a serious setback by the budget deal that he struck with Republicans last week: new details released Tuesday showed that the agreement will not only eliminate financing for high-speed rail this year, but will also take back some of the money that Congress approved for it last year....
