Liberal Talk Radio

Perhaps Blagojevich didn’t get the fairest treatment but the more he speaks, the clearer it seems that the legislature probably got it right: “Well, baby, we’re out of here,” he said to Louanner Peters, a deputy governor. His entourage hurried him toward his S.U.V. and the airport, reminding him that time might be ticking on [...]

This time, a coordinated message but Vice-President Biden still sounds off key: President Obama branded Wall Street bankers “shameful” on Thursday for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was deteriorating and the government was spending billions to bail out some of the nation’s most prominent financial institutions. “There will be time [...]

Very interesting expansion of Medicaid buried in the stimulus bill: With little notice and no public hearings, House Democrats would create a temporary new entitlement allowing workers getting unemployment checks to qualify for Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Spouses and children could also receive benefits, no matter how much money the family had. [...]

But it’s not anything President Obama came up with: “I want to apologize to you for what happened,” he said, looking earnest and speaking as if he felt pretty badly about it all. “But I can’t. Because I did nothing wrong.”

the Obama era begins, and the economic stimulus package gets going in Congress. Links Mentioned: the highlights of the stimulus bill (PDF) … Obama’s executive orders.

Lee at Horse’s Ass is starting a multi-part feature on Joe Biden’s role in the “war on drugs” the 1980s onward. Should be an interesting read: In the fall of 1982, the Reagan Administration’s Justice Department introduced a plan to spend up to $200 million for anti-drug enforcement efforts. The plan was to create a [...]

In the Bush Era, cultural critics bent over backwards in perverse contrarian ways to reevaluate the careers of artists who didn’t deserve it: “In the big picture of pop music, I don’t know if what I’ve created is seen as being that important or that necessary, at least not if you ask the experts,” he [...]

On Inauguration Day in 2005, I had pretty much the same thought as this TPM reader is having now: [Had Kerry won], we would not have had eight years of experimenting with the extreme ideology that the Bush administration has inflicted on the United States of America. And, it is this experiment that has provided [...]

Plane crashes meet regulatory policies, a look back at the Bush years, and a look forward to the Obama ones. Links Mentioned: Plane Crash … Sunstein

Obama under pressure, unrest in Gaza and Somalia, and finally…. finally, a decision on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Links Mentioned: Obama’s new preacher … Krugman’s recommendations for stimulus spending … Israeli elections … the tunnel details.