Alaska’s Sen. Ted Stevens (the Internet as a “series of tubes” guy) testified in his own defense at his corruption trial Friday, blaming the fact that he received $250,000 in free house renovations and gifts first on his wife, then family friends, and ultimately on the many responsibilities of a U.S. senator.
An acclaimed Spanish judge has ordered the unearthing of some of the unmarked graves of the tens of thousands who were killed during the first two decades of Gen. Francisco Franco’s fascist rule of Spain, formally declaring the repression by Franco and associates as a “crime against humanity.”
During Wednesday night’s debate, Barack Obama told John McCain that the McCain campaign’s intense focus on Obama’s ties to former Weatherman Bill Ayers “says more about your campaign than it does about me.” Updated
The Dow gained 401.35 points Thursday but had volatile swings through most of the day. Investors, The Wall Street Journal reports, are still trying to figure out what stage of suck the economy is in.
It would seem imprudent, given the government’s recent and unprecedented bailout of companies such as insurance giant AIG, for the likes of AIG to even entertain the idea of hefty executive payouts.
John McCain has accused the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now of trying to commit “one of the greatest frauds in voter history” by submitting fraudulent voter registration forms, but ACORN says it was required by law to submit the forms. The Center for Investigative Reporting explains.
Things really aren’t going well for John McCain, but then he has only himself to blame. Take Joe the Plumber, whom McCain mentioned more than 20 times in Wednesday’s debate. For the record, Joe’s name is Sam, and he’s not a plumber.
Although the pundits were impressed with John McCain’s debate performance, the polls showed another win for Barack Obama, who once again kept his cool against an angry, negative opponent.
Conservatives are on the march against the community organization ACORN, but what exactly is it and who pays for it? Actually, it’s many, many things, and it’s funded by a mix of labor union money, government grants (which really drive conservatives crazy) and charitable contributions from large foundations.
It’s hard to get cell reception in an out-of-the-way place like Sedona, Ariz., but it helps if you sit on the Senate committee that oversees the telecommunications industry. The Washington Post has learned that AT&T and Verizon, both of which have lobbying ties to the McCain campaign, provided cell towers for the McCains’ ranch at no charge to the couple.
It seems like only a couple of days ago that the Dow jumped 936 points. The market went back to freaking everyone out on Wednesday, with a sobering drop of 733.08 points. Stimuli and bailouts aside, it appears that we’re in for a substantial recession.
Two recently disclosed memos from 2003 and 2004 show the Bush administration giving CIA torture techniques, most famously waterboarding, an explicit executive nod after worries arose in the intelligence community about the legality of the treatment of detainees.
If it seems that you can’t escape Barack Obama’s ubiquitous smiling mug no matter where you go, be careful to not turn on your Xbox. Obama has become the first presidential candidate to buy ad space inside a video game. Among the games are the popular “Madden ’09” football and “Burnout: Paradise” racing.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank found many former Hillary Clinton supporters in Pennsylvania who had a hard time switching to Barack Obama—until Sarah Palin joined the Republican ticket. One Gail Silverberg captures the sentiment: “Hockey moms and lipstick on a pig and six-packs? I don’t want that stuff.”
The answer is William Timmons, a lobbyist tapped by McCain to head his transition team. Timmons was connected to a lobbying effort on behalf of the Hussein regime, though he has denied any wrongdoing.
Christopher Buckley has resigned from his father’s magazine, with the help of a stiff boot to the rear, thanks to his recent endorsement of Barack Obama. The satirist says he has no hard feelings, but “I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me.”
So, everyone has a relative, or perhaps a neighbor, who has spread warnings in hushed tones about Barack Obama’s years of secret indoctrination at a Muslim madrassa (gasp!) in Indonesia—as though affiliating with a Muslim community of any description is cause for concern—a rumor that has been disproved many times. Here’s a fun look into the origin of the chain e-mail that started that particular smear.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said Tuesday that the U.S. was already in a recession, despite the efforts of the U.S. government and other nations’ leaders to intervene. “I have seen a lot of crises but I have never seen anything quite like this one,” said Volcker, who headed up the Fed for eight years before Alan Greenspan took over in 1987.
John McCain has laid out his plan for how he would help Americans recover from the recent shocks to the domestic and international markets. He took the action on Tuesday, a day later than he initially said he would and a day after Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama released his own economic plan—and McCain’s timing was not lost on the Obama campaign.
First Dude Todd Palin has said he and some “buddies” built his lakefront home in Wasilla, Alaska, but an investigation by the Village Voice connects the home’s construction, if circumstantially, to the beneficiaries of a local boondoggle championed by his wife.
Christopher Hitchens has reached an endorsement by process of elimination. John McCain, he writes, isn’t up to the job, while “the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience.”
Barack Obama unveiled his $60-billion economic rescue plan on Monday and urged Washington not to wait for a new president to take up his proposals. The Obama plan includes tax breaks for companies that hire new workers, a short moratorium on foreclosures and, with an eye on job creation, federal financing for public works and infrastructure projects.
After Team McCain’s negative strategy over recent days seemed to hurt the Republican’s campaign more than help it, John McCain took a new tack on Monday, calling off the attack dogs—or at least reining them in a bit—during a speech in Virginia Beach, Va.
William Kristol was becoming apoplectic, Hillary Clinton was sounding optimistic, and the McCain campaign was being perhaps a tad unrealistic—or so read Monday’s political barometer as an ABC/Washington Post poll indicated that the Obama campaign had taken a 10-point lead in the presidential race.
The Dow shot up more than 900 points Monday after nations around the world pitched into the effort to resuscitate the dangerously flagging global marketplace by announcing their own rescue plans.
Bailout or Bust: How to Save the Big Three From Themselves
