Sunday, January 30, 2011

Yahoo! News: Politics News

Yahoo! News: Politics News

Obama demands change as Mubarak meets army (Reuters)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 03:18 PM PST

Demonstrators celebrate atop an army tank in Tahrir square during protests in Cairo January 29, 2011. REUTERS/Yannis BehrakisReuters - The United States led an international push on Sunday to force President Hosni Mubarak to yield to Egyptians' demands for democracy. But there was little sign the army was about to end his 30-year rule -- just yet.

Daley asks GOP to detail its proposed budget cuts (AP)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 09:40 AM PST

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2011, file photo new White House Chief of Staff William Daley smiles as he is introduced by President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington. Daley knows the Department of Commerce inside and out. He ran the sprawling agency during the Clinton administration. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)AP - President Barack Obama's new chief of staff is responding to a proposal from congressional Republicans to cut $55 billion from the federal budget with a question: "Where's the beef?"

Boehner defends crying, smoking (The Ticket)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 07:44 AM PST

The Ticket - House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered some tough defenses of his personal habits during an interview with Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace asked Boehner to respond to people who say his habit of crying in public makes him look "weak" or "strange." "Yes, I wear my emotions on my sleeve," Boehner said. "I'm not [...]

Will We Ever Reduce Military Spending? (The Atlantic Wire)

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 03:35 PM PST

The Atlantic Wire -

Miss. gov. juggles White House hopes, state's past (AP)

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 08:42 PM PST

In this Dec. 14, 2010 photo taken at his Jackson, Miss., office, Gov. Haley Barbour discusses his hopes for his final legislative session as governor which began Jan. 4, 2011. Barbour's folksy style, savvy leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and success as a GOP strategist have made him an outside contender for the Republican nomination for president. But the 63-year-old has shown a penchant for airbrushing his state's segregationist past. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)AP - Haley Barbour's folksy style, savvy leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and success as a GOP strategist have made the two-term Mississippi governor a serious contender early in the wide-open contest for the Republican presidential nomination.

Commerce cuts coming in Obama's reorganization? (AP)

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 12:22 PM PST

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2011, file photo President Barack Obama makes a point during his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. A big laugh line in the speech was 'The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater. I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked.' New Commerce Secretary William Daley provided the anecdote to the White House. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)AP - It was a big laugh line in President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech: "The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater. I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked."

In turnabout, Dems say GOP has dropped job focus (AP)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 12:32 AM PST

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, sporting a ribbon in support of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., prepares for President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)AP - Republicans won dozens of elections last fall after claiming Democrats had focused too little on creating jobs. Now GOP lawmakers stand accused of the same charge, using their new House majority to push to repeal the president's health care law, restrict abortions and highlight other social issues important to their most conservative supporters.

SNL gives Bachmann another chance ... (Politico)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 06:42 AM PST

Politico - ... and then takes it away.

Palin retreats, won't reload (Politico)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 05:25 AM PST

Politico - Former Alaska guv drops "reload" from her public shtick.

Clinton: Egypt must transition to democracy (AP)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 02:27 PM PST

A protester has his hands painted with the inscription 'Down with Mubarak' during a demonstration in Tahrir square in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)AP - The U.S. appealed for an orderly transition to lasting democracy in Egypt even as escalating violence in the American ally threatened Mideast stability and put President Barack Obama in a diplomatic bind.

Dutch freeze contacts with Iran after hanging (AP)

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 01:51 PM PST

AP - The Dutch government froze official contacts with Iran on Saturday to protest the hanging of a Dutch-Iranian woman, the Foreign Ministry said.

Obama presses Mubarak for transition to democracy (Reuters)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 02:48 PM PST

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the situation in Egypt at the White House in Washington, January 28, 2011. REUTERS/Jim YoungReuters - President Barack Obama on Sunday urged an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt, stopping short of calling on President Hosni Mubarak to step down but signaling that his days may be numbered.

5 Best Sunday Columns (The Atlantic Wire)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 12:09 PM PST

The Atlantic Wire - Steven Pearlstein on Davos and the Limits of Globalization The annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week prompts The Washington Post columnist to reflect on the failures of globalization. Pearlstein acknowledges the new global economy "has enhanced the wealth and stature of the financial, technological and philanthropic elite that have turned Davos into their playground." For much of the rest of the world though, the new global economy has been a "mixed bag" and "something of a disappointment." The emerging "tripartite global economy, with growth in the developing countries of Asia running at more than 7 percent, growth in Japan and most of Europe remaining painfully sluggish at below 2 percent, and with the United States and much of the Americas falling somewhere in between" sounds good in theory, but the threat of inflation, lack of floating exchange rates, and decline in domestic investments make these projections seem "highly unstable" and unpredictable. "Yes, we have globalization," concludes Pearlstein. "What we don't have yet is a global economy or the institutional infrastructure to sustain it."Jonathan Bernstein on Filibuster Reform The New Republic blogger is no fan of the Senate's current filibuster rules, but says recent efforts to resurrect the live filibuster are misguided, and will only make the upper chamber more inefficient. "It’s just wrong to equate intensity with a willingness to stand on the Senate floor and talk indefinitely," he explains. "To the minority, this is an opportunity, albeit a difficult one, but not an overwhelming hardship. Senators, after all, like talking, especially if it gets them in the news." In the wake of the Merkley-Udall-Harkin reform proposal going down earlier in the week, Bernstein believes it's time for reformers to go back to the drawing board and ditch the insistence on a live filibuster. "The goal should be to find something smarterâ€"a plan that will actually work to accommodate majority interests, minority intensity, and, in my view, majority intensity, too," Bernstein argues. "Live, talking filibusters don’t have anything to do with those goals. Nostalgia for Jimmy Stewart has its place, but Senate reform isn’t it."Peter Schuck on Immigration Reform Writing in the Los Angeles Times, the NYU law professor argues the sluggish economy has put the 112th Congress in a unique position to enact sweeping immigration reform. Schuck cites the overall decline in illegal immigration since 2007, enhanced border security enforcement, and efforts at the state level to step up the enforcement of existing policies as the main reasons a compromise suddenly looks possible in Washington. While "these developments cannot stem the flow of desperate foreign workers altogether," Schuck says "they can allay some of the public anxiety about being overwhelmed by a flood." With that in mind, he cautions that "any grand bargain on immigration reform must appeal to the major constituencies: state governments, employers, unions, amnesty advocates, growers and the general public."Joanna Weis on 'Skins' and Teens The Boston Globe columnist believes the wild teens on MTV's Skins have more in common with ambitious high schoolers on the Ivy League fast track than one might expect. Both groups are being let down by the adults in their lives. On Skins, the adults are "buffoons, malevolent figures, or absent altogether." In the world of prep schools, teens "are so browbeat by ambitious parents and fearmongering guidance counselors that they load up on extracurricular activities, do homework deep into the night, and wind up exhausted and depressed." It's an insidious trend that helps explains why young audiences respond to glossy teen soap operas. "Teens everywhere are bombarded with concern about the future: the soaring cost of college, the state of the economy, the fear that, politics and demographics being what they are, they’ll lack both opportunity and an ample safety net...But they share one universal, authentic idea: The source of all their trouble is adults."Vicki Woods on Philanthropy and the UK Why is charitable giving so much lower in the UK than in the United States? Telegraph columnist Vicki Woods blames the UK's tax code, which doesn't allow for a deduction on charitable donations. In the United States, deductions make it possible for the wealthy to "pick and choose the things they liked to throw [charitable donations] at." The English government is attempting to correct this imbalance by forcing investment banks to disclose their charitable contributions, but Woods says such a policy will have little effect. How, she wonders, does the coalition government expect to "persuade bankers to chuck their bonuses towards the Tate if they don't give them tax breaks"?

O’Reilly: ‘Boehner has to get his emotions under control’; Boehner: ‘I am who I am’ (Daily Caller)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 08:49 AM PST

Daily Caller - Read more stories from The Daily CallerBush: I'm done with politicsSNL 'interviews' Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak10 questions with 'Rendezvous with Destiny' author Craig ShirleyThose who've confronted representatives with vitriolic language speak outLiberals plan to 'uncloak' the Koch brothers

Palin Kills It in Gun Country (The Daily Beast)

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 05:51 AM PST

The Daily Beast - Rocking the house at the Safari Club International annual convention, Sarah Palin warned Obama was out for their gun rights—and dangled a major hint about 2012. Andrew Romano reports.

Gun Control's Surprising Return (The Daily Beast)

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 05:33 PM PST

The Daily Beast - After a long decade of no movement on gun control, the shootings in Arizona have spurred activists to push for new legislation says Adam Winkler. But can they succeed? Not if the Tea Party has its say.
Posted by Harshad at 3:30 PM

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