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Just two years after he was the party’s nominee, could Republican voters kick John McCain to the curb? A new poll from Rasmussen Reports shows McCain leading potential challenger J.D. Hayworth by just two points, 45 to 43. Hayworth is a former U.S. congressman and a Phoenix-based talk-show host. He has expressed interest in the race but has not formally declared.
How goes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s efforts to convince holdout Senators Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln to vote to open debate on health-care reform? Reid appears to have secured Nelson’s and Landrieu’s support. In order to appease Landrieu, Reid included a provision in the bill that will give $100 million in federal Medicaid aid to any states that have suffered a natural disaster in the last seven years, which will serve Landrieu’s Louisiana nicely. Nelson, meanwhile, has said he will vote to allow debate on the bill to open. Senator Dick Durbin says that Reid knows how Lincoln will vote, but added, “you will have to ask Sen. Reid.”
Remember Roland Burris? Barack Obama’s replacement in the Senate was admonished on Friday by the Senate Ethics Committee for his actions related to his appointment by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. In a “public letter of qualified admonition,” the Committee wrote, “You should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading, or incomplete information to the public, the Senate, and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate.” Burris celebrated the committee’s action, noting that there were no “actionable violations of the law.”
"Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number. It's the exact right time," Oprah Winfrey told her live audience on Friday, the day after the head of Harpo announced that the talk-show legend's last show would air on Sept. 9, 2011. "This show has been my life, and I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye," Oprah said through tears and a breaking voice. Oprah thanked her viewers for letting her into their "living rooms" and "lives" and said that she plans to go out with a bang. "We are going to knock your socks off," she said. "The countdown to the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show starts now." Oprah's departure leaves big questions in its wake: Where will the talk-show maven go? Could anyone ever replace her? "She has been one of the family for Americans for 25 years," The Daily Beast editor Tina Brown told Good Morning America Friday. "The audience is just going to have to follow her, right?"
A day after Sarah Palin said she’d consider Glenn Beck as a running mate if she runs for president in 2012, Lou Dobbs tells Reuters “I am ruling nothing out” when asked if he would consider running for Senate in his home state of New Jersey or for president in 2012. “I have come to no conclusions and no decisions. Do I seek to have some influence on public policy? Absolutely. Do I seek to represent and champion the middle class in this country and those who aspire to it? Absolutely. And I will.”
Does placing a tax on elective cosmetic surgery violate women's civil rights? Some cosmetic surgeons and product companies think so. The new health-care bill's 5 percent tax on breast implants, Botox, and other elective surgeries will most significantly affect baby boomers—women between the ages of 35-50 who make around $55,000 a year, according to a Botox company called Allergan and the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. The tax "discriminates against women," said Allergan in a statement. "What's next? Are we going to tax people who color their hair?" added Medicis, a filler company. The tax only applies to elective procedures rather than surgeries involving unavoidable birth defects, accidents, and diseases, and the CBO says it will generate approximately $5 billion over the next 10 years.
Goldman Sachs garnered some great publicity this week with the announcement of its “10,000 Small Businesses” program, a $500 million deal with Warren Buffett to help small businesses. It turns out that, in true financier style, the giveaway is laden with tax-deductable donations as well as loans to be paid back with interest, putting the heralded $500 million price tag somewhere between $136 million and $150 million, about a 70 percent markdown. The news about the program some called “an apology with a half-billion-dollar gift card” was met with a resounding “no comment” from Buffett and Goldman spokespeople. Regardless of the actual numbers, small business owners seem unlikely to turn down the offer.
Check the ingredients label on your bar of soap: Three men have been arrested in Peru for killing at least five people and then possibly selling their body fat to European cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies. The men, part of a gang with six other men still at large, were found in the jungle near human remains and two jars of fat. They reportedly drained corpses by severing their heads and limbs then hanging up and heating the bodies in order to let fat drain. There's no actual proof of the fat being sold, though, and experts say that fat for cosmetic procedures is easily available from living patients. "I can't see why there would be a black market for fat," said one professor of plastic surgery.
Lock your doors and ditch your ironic accessories, the hipster grifter is back on the loose. After about six months in a Salt Lake City prison, Kari Farrell was released today. Farrell had been serving time for conning people in Utah, and then heading to New York, where she earned her nickname.
Remeber the Jonathan Franzen feud with Oprah? In 2001, the novelist dismissed Oprah after she chose his book The Corrections for her book club because he didn't want the Oprah "logo of corporate ownership" on his book jacket—then she disinvited him from appearing on her show. The well-publicized war of words, which he later said he felt "awful" about, didn't rob him of appreciation for her hard work, though. In light of Oprah's move to cable, Franzen tells The Daily Beast exclusively: "Oprah's show is the last place on the networks where serious books still sometimes get a hearing, so it's sad to learn of her impending retreat to cable." It's one void that Glenn Beck just won't be able to fill.
The Lithuanian Parliament has opened the third investigation in 3 years into whether the country housed secret CIA prisons. Recent reports suggest that U.S. contractors built a secret detention center inside a former horse stable on the edge of a forest near Vilnius. Reports of covert CIA flights carrying passengers into Lithuania from Afghanistan have also surfaced. Although many officials are dubious about the reports, Lithuanian leaders are no longer ruling the possibility out of hand. Newly elected President Dalia Grybauskaite spoke of her "indirect suspicions" last month that the reports could be true, and urged Parliament to investigate. Former president Valdas Adamkus said he did not have personal knowledge of the program but added that if the reports were ture, Lithuanian security officers could face prosecution. "Those who did it," he said, "in my eyes are criminals."
Goldman Sachs may have bounced back from the recession, but shareholders now want a bigger piece of the pie. While Goldman Sachs is gearing up for its largest-ever employee payout, shareholders have been pushing for the firm to cut back on bonuses, instead spreading the wealth to its investors as a reward for the huge improvement. Part of the problem is a lower per-share value, the result of 100 million extra shares issued over the past year in response to the financial crisis, during which the company received $10 billion in government bailout money. Not everyone thinks smaller bonuses are such a good plan, though: "Goldman has a pay-for-performance culture, and if Goldman violates that pact with employees they run the risk of talented people leaving, which wouldn't necessarily be good for shareholders," said an analyst at Barclays Capital. Bonuses and payout for 2009 are set to be announced in January.
The vampire craze has yet to peak if the latest film installment in the Twilight series is any indication. Several thousand New Moon showtimes have already sold out in anticipation of its Friday release, according to Fandango, AMC, and MovieTickets.com, which say the film has broken advance ticket sales records set by the likes of Revenge of the Sith, Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. Today is all about the ladies, though, and they're not afraid to get their dork on. MovieTickets.com reports that 87 percent of its ticket buyers are women, while Fandango reports that ten percent of fans plan to dress up as film characters. Those lucky enough to score tickets to a Thursday night advance screening may be deaf this morning—Fandango reported that 51 percent of fans were prepared to scream as the lights went down. Eat your heart out, Frodo.
The honeymoon is over for conservative tea-party activists, with increasing divisions within the group, leaving many members with a fuzzy sense of political purpose after a summer packed with protests and town-hall shouting matches. "These groups don't play together as well as they should," said one frequent speaker at tea-party events, citing "a lot of people who have not had managerial experience who all of a sudden are thrust into the limelight and become intoxicated with it." After coming together over their rage at government spending, the tea partiers are running up against ideological differences with some members of the group seen as too "extreme" and conflicts over whether their protest should focus on national or local issues, and how closely to identify with the Republican Party. The initial group was comprised of members from a huge swath of different conservative organizations, and the next few months are thought to be key to whether it will maintain its political influence. "Are they going to be a bunch of fingers, or are they going to come together to be a fist?" asked Ned Ryun, president of American Majority.
The Nov. 5 Fort Hood shooting decimated two units that were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq, but it disproportionately affected mental health specialists set to deploy. Five of the 13 people killed during Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's alleged rampage were mental health specialists, and 19 of those wounded in the shooting were behavioral health specialists. However, eight of the wounded specialists are still willing to deploy, and 14 other mental health reservists have volunteered to fill the vacancies, important because last week the Army said that the need for mental health workers in Afghanistan was dire. The Army usually tries to maintain a ratio of 1 mental health clinician to 700 soldiers, but last spring the ratio slipped to 1-to-1,123.
Is our society plagued by chronic over-screening? The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the leading professional organization for obstetricians and gynecologists, has changed its recommendations about pap smears. The ACOG now recommends that regardless of when sexual activity is begun, young women should wait until age 21 for their first Pap smears, and repeat the test every two years, not annually. At age 30, a woman should undergo the test every three years, provided she has no history of cervical cancer and three clean Paps in a row. Previously, the ACOG recommended that women begin annual Pap tests three years after having sex for the first time, or no later than age 21. The change in policy is due to a 50 percent decline in rates of cervical cancer since the 1970s. New HPV vaccines such as Gardasil are likely to reduce the rate even further 15 to 20 years down the road. Nationwide, an average of 14 cases of cervical cancer occur in women between ages 15 and 19, while an average of 123 cases occur among women ages 20 to 24, prompting concerns that most Pap smears for young women are unnecessary. It's also been found that the majority of cervical lesions—which occur in 1 in 5 Pap tests among adolescents—will resolve themselves within 3 years, while removing or burning away these legions probably raises the later risk of giving birth to a premature or underweight baby.
The sorry state of the economy has some lawmakers fuming, so much so that they erupted into a shouting match with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at a Joint Economic Committee hearing on Thursday. House Republicans have been vociferous about their disapproval for some time, but more liberal Democrats are joining in now, too. One congressman said to Geithner, "the public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job." The Treasury secretary shot back: "What I can't take responsibility for is the legacy of crises you've bequeathed this country." Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) called on Geithner to resign this week. Earlier in the week, a government report charged the Fed, where Geithner served as president before joining the administration, with giving cushy deals to big banks when it bailed them out.
Public Policy Polling brings us the latest installment in pollsters' ongoing series: "Which crazy conspiracy theory do a majority of Republicans believe now?" The latest example is a question on whether President Obama's 2008 election victory, in which he defeated his Republican rival by well over 8 million votes, was legitimate or whether the entire operation was somehow rigged by ACORN. Astoundingly, a whopping 52 percent of Republicans polled said they believed ACORN "stole it" for Obama, versus 18 percent among independents who reported the same belief, and 26 percent of the overall population. The numbers come despite the fact that Obama's margin of victory closely tracked independent polling and despite a lack of evidence of any widespread voter fraud. According to PPP, the number of ACORN conspiracy theorists in the GOP is even higher than the number of "birthers," which they pegged at 42 percent of the party faithful in September.
Is President Obama losing control of Congress? Tough economic times and an anti-incumbent tide are pushing lawmakers towards a more antagonistic relationship with the White House as they look to find extra help for their constituents and to find villains to blame for the country's problems. The Washington Post cites several recent episodes from both Democrats and Republicans as evidence, including one this week in which the Congressional Black Caucus delayed a committee vote on key financial regulations in order to protest a lack of resources for African-American communities hit by the recession. The committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), told his colleagues the CBC was "frustrated by the response to the economic situation by the administration." The same week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner faced calls for his resignation at a hearing from Republican lawmakers and tough criticism from their Democratic counterparts as well over his handling of the economy.
In a sign of the times for India's rising working class, dissatisfied workers are resorting to violence, and sometimes murder, to protest their managers and company executives. India has averaged more than 8 percent growth over the past half decade, leading to a burgeoning middle class, as well as a large class of workers who haven't reaped the benefits of prosperity. While the economy has grown, it has also contracted, causing manufacturers to make cutbacks. This year strikes are up 48 percent from 2008, and some dissent has turned violent. Across the country, there have been incidences of a chief executive beaten to death, a human-resources boss bludgeoned to death, and female factory workers dousing themselves in kerosene.
Hope you weren’t planning on talking about it over Thanksgiving dinner: The White House said on Thursday that its decision on a new comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan won't be announced until after Thanksgiving. Foreign Policy writes that “staffs of key principals have already begun crafting the rollout and testimony speeches, leaving holes in the text to fill in whatever the President’s specific troop and resource decisions might turn out to be.”
The University of California system returned to its position as a hotbed of student activism this week as students rallied to protest a 32 percent tuition increase approved Thursday. The student protests—which aimed to block increasing tuition fees above $10,000 for the first time—shut down the Regents' UCLA meeting three times on Wednesday, while similar protests occurred at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. But the rallies were ultimately unsuccessful, and the average undergraduate cost will rise by about $2,500 to around $10,300 next year. The system has already laid off some 2,000 employees and imposed furloughs to help close a $535 million budget gap. President Mark Yudof recommended the fee increase to restore some of the cuts, and said Wednesday that unless the state was able to grant an additional $913 million to the schools next year, tuition could rise again.
South Africa's sports ministry announced that Caster Semenya, South Africa's world champion runner, will be allowed to keep her gold medals and prize money despite claims that she does not qualify to run as a woman. But the ruling has yet to address exactly what Semenya's gender has been defined as, whether she will be allowed to compete as a woman in the future, and whether she may need to accept further testing or surgery to qualify. Semenya's coach told the New York Times that she “is going to compete as a woman and will remain a woman until she dies" and wouldn't comment on what obligations might come attached to the decision to allow her to keep her medal. International track officials ordered an inquiry into Semenya's gender after the world championship races in August, prompting an outcry from many South Africans who idolize the homegrown runner.
Majority Leader Harry Reid said the first key vote on the Senate health-care bill will be held Saturday. Reid wouldn't say whether he has the 60 votes he needs, and with all 40 Republicans expected to vote against it, he needs to hold on to three wavering moderate Democrats. Reid also noted he would not pass the bill using the reconciliation process—which would require only 51 votes. The $847 billion package, presented by Reid Wednesday, would extend health-care coverage to 31 million Americans by dramatically expanding Medicaid and including a public option with the ability for states to opt out. The package will be funded, in part, by an increase in taxes, especially for high earners. Republicans are already decrying the cost of the plan, saying the increased Medicaid coverage would put a heavy burden on financially strapped states. All 40 Senate Republicans are expected to block the legislation from moving forward, and Reid has declined to comment on whether he has the 58 Democrats and two independents he needs to get the bill through. On the issue of abortion, which proved a tricky in the House, Reid proposed a "firewall" that would separate private premiums from federal funding if abortion were to be included in the public-insurance plan.
The House Financial Services Committee voted Thursday to approve a measure by Rep. Ron Paul that would allow Congress to scrutinize the Fed's lending programs and decisions about interest rates. If the bill makes it through, it would mean unprecedented exposure to the government and political pressure for the Fed. Paul, a libertarian Texas Republican, has tried to introduce a similar bill since the 1980s, without success. The Fed has long been insulated from congressional audits, and Fed officials argue that the move would weaken the institution's ability to make monetary-policy decisions independent of political influence. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) spoke out against the measure, arguing that the Fed's credibility with foreign investors could be damaged.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibirand (D-NY) can breathe easy for now as former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani may not be challenging her seat in 2010 after all. Politico's Ben Smith reports that a spokeswoman for Giuliani emailed him to deny rumors Thursday that the 2008 presidential candidate would run for senate, writing "It's not true." Smith notes that Giuliani scoffed at the idea of a senate run when asked about it before, telling Michael Crowley in a recent New York Magazine piece that "My value is in running things."
World powers could put together a package of sanctions against Iran "within weeks," President Obama said on Thursday, after Iran's silence on a nuclear deal. Under the UN-brokered plan, Iran would have shipped 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France to be converted to fuel plates for a Tehran reactor that makes isotopes for cancer treatment. On Thursday, Russia said that Iran had not yet given a final "no" to the proposal, while Obama said that "we aren't going to duplicate what happened with North Korea, in which talks just continue forever without any actual resolution to the issue."
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