War on Fossil Fuels: The Gulf Spill as Opportunity

June 16, 2010

Obama “could have a quick, clean, bipartisan win on legislation that would eliminate the risk of another spill like this one. Instead he is rolling the dice again, gambling that he can leverage the problems with drilling for oil in deep water to get legislation that also raises costs for power production.” Politics over policy.

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Obama's Uncertain Action Plan

June 16, 2010

Obama’s first speech from the Oval is almost universally panned: “Yet by raising the stakes so high — and framing the environmental crisis as a ‘battle’ and a ‘siege’ — he underscored the threat the spill poses not only to the Gulf but to his own credibility as president after nine weeks of failure, criticism […]

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The Big XII's New Math

June 15, 2010

[tweetmeme] I’m curious to learn the details of the financial package put together to save the Big XII — essentially, it appears a conference that has always been hamstrung by its uneven revenue sharing agreement is surviving by making it even more uneven. According to Yahoo Sports and Orangebloods, the eleventh-hour deal comes thanks to […]

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A Presidency on the Brink

June 14, 2010

It’s hard to imagine a worse outcome for Obama from the BP spill. His whole project as president is to convince Americans that they should learn to trust government with a much larger role in society. This case just got a lot harder for him to make.

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The Re-Making of a Mayor

June 14, 2010

[tweetmeme] When I first heard there was an effort underway to resurrect the image of New York Mayor John Lindsay, I thought it had to be a joke. Lindsay’s failure as a politician was near-total, and his philosophical evisceration at the hands of William F. Buckley, Jr. was so thorough, one could argue the mayor […]

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U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan

June 14, 2010

Now the Taliban will totally stop fighting: “The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.”

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Obama to Demand BP Set Up Damage Fund

June 14, 2010

“The Obama administration, facing growing public anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, plans to ask BP PLC to establish an independently administered fund for reimbursing victims—in effect, taking some of the compensation decisions out of the company’s hands.” And trying to ensure money gets set aside before it’s all gone.

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BP Default Swaps Soar to New Record

June 10, 2010

Bankrupt Petroleum? “The cost to protect BP Plc bonds against default rose to a record. Credit-default swaps on the Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, rose 2.5 basis points to a mid-price of 132 basis points.”

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Democrats Drop Empathy for Immigration Push

June 10, 2010

“Long pilloried for being soft on illegal immigration, top Democratic officials have concluded there’s only one way they can hope to pass a comprehensive immigration bill: Talk more like Republicans.” Polls say “enforcement-first, law-and-order, limited-compassion pitch” includes calling them “illegal immigrants,” not “undocumented workers.”

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Sportswriter Kevin Blackistone: Boycott Israel

June 10, 2010

[tweetmeme] The last time we saw sports personality Kevin Blackistone (of ESPN’s execrable shouting columnist circle-jerk “Around the Horn”) stumping for boycotts, it was his call for sports leagues to boycott Arizona for their decision to empower local police officers to enforce immigration laws — a step supported by an extreme right-wing 73% of Americans. […]

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