George W. Bush has screwed our nation in more ways than most of us can keep track of. The news today on the projected deficit that Bush will leave behind is a jaw dropper: Bush would leave a record $482 billion deficit to his successor, a sobering turnabout in the nation’s fiscal condition from 2001, when Mr. Bush took office after three consecutive years of budget surpluses. But hold on.. the NY Times reports:
NBC News notes that Sen. Barack Obama is joined in Washington, D.C. today by top aides David Plouffe, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs. In addition, his vice presidential search team leaders, Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, are also in D.C. today. Could a decision on Obama’s running mate be near? “The convergence of all the senior staff here with that search committee only further signals that the process is at a critical stage. The campaign, of course, is not commenting on it.” Update: MSNBC spotted Obama at Holder’s office. h/t Political Wire UPDATE 2 (from Pamela 8:03 pdt): Politco and the WaPo are both murmuring about Tim Kaine tonight… First from Politico: Kaine, an early Obama supporter whose biography nicely … Continue reading
Robert Novak, the conservative syndicated Chicago Sun-Times columnist announced today that “he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor but says that, “God willing,” he plans to be back at work soon.” Sad news… Novak said he was diagnosed Sunday with a tumor and will soon begin treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He issued the following statement: “On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I have been admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment. “I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period.” The Chicago Sun Times reports that according to Novak’s assistant Kathlenn Connolly, “Novak is alert and … Continue reading
There’s a trailer clip available from Oliver Stone’s upcoming George W. Bush biography, starring Josh Brolin (“No Country for Old Men”) as George W., and James Cromwell as Bush 41. Ellen Burstyn plays Barbara Bush and Richard Dreyfuss is cast as Dick Cheney: H/T to The Swamp who also links to this “interview with Stone about the film from Entertainment Weekly, in which he suggests Bush’s tenure was a “gonzo presidency.””
Now that Barack Obama is back in the U.S., after his whirlwind trip to the Middle East and Europe, he’s ready to start focusing on the “top issue for American voters — the faltering U.S. economy.” That’s welcome news, because every one I speak to from friends to business associates are all concerned with economic issues. As he hits the campaign trail again, Barack Obama will travel to “Washington to meet with a star-studded panel that includes billionaire investor Warren Buffett, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Google chairman Eric Schmidt.” Polls show economic worries lead voter concerns by a wide margin. After a week out of the country meeting world leaders and discussing foreign policy, Obama said he is anxious to … Continue reading
I’m heading off for the night, but I want to recommend readers head over to Hullabaloo and read Digby’s post on Jane Mayer’s book The Dark Side, The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. Digby concludes: This isn’t just a fever dream of the liberal left and the libertarian right. Too bad government just passed a law covering the whole thing up. Mayer believes that there will be no prosecutions and that the verdict on these people will be left to history. I wish she was right, at least in the sense that history will be the judge of what all went wrong. The problem is that these fascist zombies keep doing … Continue reading
Watching Stephanopoulos interview McCain this morning on ABC, it struck me that he’s so easy to dislike that I can sometimes do it without even really thinking. McCain: “If we start counting time sixteen months ago, it would prove that Obama would be happy to have Osama Bin Laden take over this country, or even Saddam Hussein, as long as Obama could be second in command. And by golly something very much like this will happen if I don’t win in November.” Something like that. McCain is one of those people who are flat out so dumb that they think that we lost in Viet Nam just because we left there before shedding the last available drop of American blood. … Continue reading
Frank Rich’s column today in the NY Times, about Barack Obama’s trip abroad, is a must read. Rich says, “to dismiss Barack Obama’s magical mystery tour through old Europe and two war zones as a media-made fairy tale would be to underestimate the ingenious politics of the moment.”
