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Has Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman thrown the Blue Dog Dems a bone? According to Politico, "Waxman has cut a deal to reconvene his committee and vote on the Democrats' sweeping health care bill, with a goal of completing work by the time lawmakers leave town for the summer on Friday." Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, speaking for the Blue Dogs, said that the committee will begin debating the bill Wednesday afternoon. According to CNN, "Ross said the deal between four Blue Dogs on the House committee, the House Democratic leadership and the White House lowers the cost of the House health care reform plan by $100 billion and also exempts businesses with payrolls below $500,000 from having to provide health coverage for workers." Also, "the bill's government-funded public insurance option—a key provision for President Obama and Democratic leaders—would be a choice for consumers instead of coverage forced on people without health insurance." According to the Associated Press, a floor vote isn't expected until September.
They can run (or, rake in $3 billion in three months) but they can't hide. A Senate panel has subpoenaed financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, seeking evidence of fraud in last year's mortgage-market meltdown, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. The congressional investigation is focusing on whether emails and other internal communications reveal that bankers privately doubted whether the mortgage-related securities they were facilitating were as sound as their public reports suggested. Washington Mutual, now largely owned by J.P. Morgan Chase, has also been subpoenaed. The investigation is the latest in a series of moves by Congress to examine the roots of the economic meltdown. Spokesmen from the banks have yet to comment.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates returns to America after a two-day visit to Iraq with good news: He's ready to "modestly accelerate" the withdrawal of tens of thousands of American soldiers still stationed there. Recent Iraqi security force successes—including Tuesday's raid on an Iranian opposition group—suggest to Gates that the nation is increasingly able to police itself. According to The Washington Post, Gates wants to remove three combat brigades this year, up from the original plan for two to leave. Each brigade consists of about 5,000 soldiers. General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, could still nix Gates' plan, but the secretary said "I think there is at least some chance of a modest acceleration because of the way General Odierno sees things going." Delicate security operations are still under way in Iraq's oil-rich north, where Arabs and Kurds continue to clash. Gates met with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani during his trip, reminding Barzani of the amount regional leaders need to accomplish before the Americans leave permanently.
Can't Henry Waxman (D-CA) catch a break? On Wednesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman scored a breakthrough compromise with the House's stubbornly moderate Blue Dog Democrats—and almost immediately, the committee's progressives demanded yet another markup delay. Waxman told reporters that, rather than rush the legislation, "it's more important that we sit in the Democratic Caucus and let people ask questions, get answers, hear each other out." Waxman's watershed Blue Dog deal slashed more than $100 billion from the bill, has the support of House leadership and the White House, and limits the public option—to progressives' dismay. Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) said the public option "has to be much stronger to get our support." Woolsey adds, "We've got a long way to go before this gets to the House floor," but Waxman appears to disagree—he remains committed to finishing the bill on Friday.
Sarah Palin’s farewell address—which included such gems as “In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs?"—might not exactly scream “talk radio,” but the former Alaska governor is apparently looking into launching her own show anyway. Inside Radio reports that “While not exactly shopping the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, sources say Palin representatives have been quietly testing the waters to see how much interest radio syndicators have for her.”
The King of Pop paid his personal doctor $150,000 a month—but apparently it wasn't enough to keep Dr. Conrad Murray ahead of the mortgage bills on his $1.5 million Las Vegas manse. One day after law enforcement searched Murray's home as part of an investigation into drug charges and the circumstances of Jacko's death, the New York Daily News reports that the doctor is "drowning in debt," hasn't made a payment on his home since January, and could face foreclosure as soon as November. Agents confiscated a computer hard drive and several cellphones during the search of Murray's home. Meanwhile, the results from Jackson's autopsy remain shielded from the public, despite plans to release the reports this week.
Watch out, Google: Microsoft and Yahoo have sealed a deal on an alliance that could threaten Google's search supremacy. Although Microsoft launched talks with Yahoo by making an unsolicited takeover bid 18 months ago, the most recent offer will, the Financial Times writes, "combine the search technology and search advertising systems of the two companies and give them a better chance to catch up with Google." The deal will boost Yahoo's annual operating income by about $500 million and yield capital expenditure savings of $200 million, the companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday. The exclusive search for Yahoo's sites will be Microsoft's recent Bing engine, and Yahoo will sell search ads for both companies.
Perhaps, a la Buffalo, Dick Cheney wants to launch an invasion? In a quiet town north of Raleigh, North Carolina, seven men stand accused of hatching a terror plot. One of the accused, Daniel Boyd, reportedly fought in Afghanistan in the 90s in the struggle to overthrow the Soviet occupiers, then returned to the U.S. and began recruiting other American radicals. Two of Boyd's sons came to share their father's views, and four others joined the ranks and began scheming terrorist operations abroad. Authorities say the men never planned attacks on U.S. soil, and apparently have no connection to al Qaeda. Federal agents have followed the men's activities for the last three years, and were apparently forced into action by the large amount of weapons the men stockpiled. Boyd's wife denies any wrongdoing, and some local North Carolinians remain skeptical. One neighbor told The New York Times, "I don't believe any of this. And it's going to take a whole lot of evidence to convince me otherwise."
A still-ailing James von Brunn, the 89-year-old white supremacist who shot and killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, was indicted Wednesday on seven counts, including first-degree murder and other hate crime and gun violations in the killing of Stephen T. Johns. If convicted, von Brunn could face life in prison and would be eligible for the death penalty, pending federal prosecutorial choices. At the time of the June shooting, security guards opened fire on von Brunn, wounding him in the face and making him unable to appear in court until this time. The six-page indictment accuses von Brunn of "willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation" shooting Johns, who opened a door for him at the museum.
So what if the birthers are right, and Barack Obama was born in Kenya in 1961? Daniel Hannan, British politician and member of the European Parliament, points out that Obama would be a British subject, since Kenya was a colony under British rule until 1963. In a tongue-in-cheek blog post for The Daily Telegraph, Hanna proposes an alternate birther theory: "Perhaps his entire career is a clever scheme to bring the colonists' rebellion to an end and revoke the Declaration of Independence." He continues: "If so, we should ensure that the reunification of the two states happens on the best possible terms. It would be nice if American learned to make tea properly." Hannan, a conservative, also proposes that Obama's nation of wayward colonists learn to play cricket better, and that they export some patriotism.
The House’s Blue Dog Democrats may have reached a compromise, but Congress’ health-care breakthroughs may be too little, too late: President Obama finally admitted Wednesday that his August deadline for a health-care overhaul can't happen. "This bill, even in the best-case scenario, will not be signed—we won't even vote on it probably until the end of September or the middle of October," he admitted at a town-hall meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. "We're just trying to get all these different bills out of committee." Don't worry, the spin machine isn't broken, yet: Obama noted that the extra time would allow senators "to take this bill home with them during the August recess" and have "more than enough time to read it." Before the cheering crowd of North Carolinans, Obama emphasized "consumer protections," arguing that the current medical system "works well for the insurance industry, but it doesn't always work well for you." A comment about his late mother's battle with cancer drew a standing ovation.
The Gates debate is getting ugly, and the controversy has spread from Cambridge to neighboring Boston. Boston Police officials say that Officer Justin Barrett has been stripped of his gun and badge following a mass email in which the officer called Gates a "jungle monkey." Boston's WCVB-TV notes that Barrett is also a member of the National Guard, and will be on leave until a termination hearing decides his fate on the police force. Boston Mayor Tom Menino weighed in: "We want to rid our department of the cancer, and that is what we did. An individual preaching hate has no place in our society."
Get ready for the next phenomenon that will bore girlfriends to tears: DJ Hero, the latest addition to the hugely successful Guitar Hero franchise. Endorsed by Jay-Z and Eminem, the game will allow players to be hip-hop superstars without the obligatory criminal activity and gunshot wounds. Selected tracks from the two rappers will be available to play in the game, along with jams from the likes of 50 Cent, Beastie Boys, KRS-One, Blondie, N.E.R.D., Gorillaz, and David Bowie. The game will also feature new mixes of old hits and is scheduled for an October release.
The commercialization of childhood classics continues: Variety reports that Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment will produce a 3-D CG animated feature of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. The original book, published in 1971, pushes environmentalism; in it, despite warnings from the titular tree-loving Lorax, the greedy Once-ler strips a forest of Truffula trees bare to manufacture clothing, with devastating results. Producer Chris Meledandri called Dr. Seuss, "prescient in an uncanny way when he wrote the book and explored the themes of greed and how that can lead to the destruction of the environment." The target release date for the film is March 2, 2012, the posthumous birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote under the Dr. Seuss pen name.
Sure, it may have been an exciting place to set up headquarters, but was it really necessary? Iraqis are outraged at the destruction of one of their most important landmarks, the ruins of ancient Babylon, where King Nebuchadnezzar built the legendary hanging gardens and ruled over one of the most spectacular cities ever known. A report by UNESCO documents some of the poor decisions by U.S. troops, including bulldozing hilltops and covering them with gravel for a parking lot, driving heavy vehicles over "once-sacred pathways," and the destruction of numerous artifacts. Many locals in the area told The Washington Post they have not been to the site since the troops left in 2004 because they cannot bear to see the damage. The head of the Babylon Museum summed up his anger: "They destroyed the whole country, so what are a few old bricks and mud walls in comparison?"
He’s reclusive, he’s eyebrowless, and, according to the Times, “some people think he’s a little nuts.” That’s William T. Vollmann, author of the forthcoming book, Imperial, which the Times calls simultaneously smart and, in parts, unreadable. It centers on immigration, and focuses on the struggles of Mexican immigrants who come through the Imperial Valley. Vollmann says he refused to cut down his 1,300-page manuscript, and knows that he’ll sell fewer copies as a result. “I don’t care,” he said of the length. “It seems like the most important thing in life is pleasing ourselves. The world doesn’t owe me a living, and if the world doesn’t want to buy my books, that’s my problem.” And on a visit to a cemetery for unidentified immigrants, Vollmann hints at what we might see in the book: “You wonder how many are never found and never brought here.” He continues, “At least they won’t be stealing our tax dollars anymore. That’s very important.”
Millions of New Yorkers are green with envy. The New York Post reports that Aubrey Boyce has received his $133 million dollar check as winner of the second-richest Mega Millions lottery in city history. Boyce, who works retrieving money from the New York subway ticket machines, plans to retire at age 49, take a deep-sea fishing vacation, and buy a car, "but not something too flashy." Boyce opted for an $82.7 million lump-sum payment, or $56.7 million after taxes.
Ever get curious about where Michelle Obama might hide in the case of a national emergency? Download Limewire or some other peer to peer sharing program and start digging around, because that info, and much more, is out there. The revelations were made at a hearing of the House Government Oversight & Government Reform Committee examining the security dangers involved in peer to peer file-sharing. Other information available included "surveillance photos of an alleged mafia hit man leaked while he was still on trial, along with the the government's witness list, some of whom are in the government's witness protection program." The chairman of the committee said he plans introducing a bill to ban the programs altogether.
Mayor Bloomberg's solution to New York City's homeless problem is to make families hit the road. The Guardian reports that under a new initiative by the Mayor's administration, hundreds of New York City families have received vouchers for plane, rail, and bus tickets, as well as for gas, to help them leave the city. All a homeless family needs to qualify for the vouchers is a relative outside the city who is willing to house them. The city has defended the plan as a cost-cutting measure; it costs taxpayers $36,000 to house a family in a city shelter, but a mere $6,332 to fly them to their relative's house in Paris, as a family of five recently did. The head of the New York advocacy group Partnership for the Homeless called the move "cosmetic" and said it passed "the problem of homelessness to another city."
In the wild and crazy world of Amy Winehouse, one would think there’d be plenty of drugs to go around, but no: The hard-partying singer allegedly stole cocaine from Kate Moss’s handbag, her ex-husband claims. The then-couple were at the Gramercy Park Hotel on an undisclosed date when the model told Winehouse to get a bill to snort cocaine with, at which time Winehouse allegedly found two grams of the drug and pocketed them. Moss, Blake Fielder-Civil said, was too drunk to notice. Both Winehouse and Moss have publicly addressed their addictions to illegal drugs.
Meet Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, a hijab-wearing journalist who writes for the left-wing Al-Sahafa newspaper in Sudan, and also works for the United Nations Mission in Sudan. According to the Telegraph, on July 3 Hussein was arrested at a Khartoum restaurant along with 12 other women for wearing "indecent" clothes (trousers) and will appear in front of a judge this morning. Ten of the women have already been flogged 10 times each for wearing trousers, despite the fact that they came from animist and Christian areas of the country where sharia law does not apply. Hussein faces 40 lashes and a $100 fine. Another woman journalist, Amal Habbani, faces a defamation suit and a fine of up to several hundred thousand dollars after writing an article condemning Hussein's treatment. A local human-rights group said the suit against Habbani stemmed from her claim that Hussein's arrest was "not about fashion but a political tactic to intimidate and terrorize opponents."
When Lucia Whalen picked up the phone and dialed 911, she had no idea that the call would set off a national story involving race, police abuse, and even the president himself. And Whalen would do it all over again. Whalen, who has been swept up in the maelstrom of media coverage surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in the last few days, said in a press conference that the recording of her call shows that she "tried to be careful and honest with my words." Whalen has hired a lawyer—though it is unlikely she'll need one—and has said she was "personally devastated" by accusations that she is racist. She also has hired a spokeswoman, who said to the media, "While the three men will have a beer at the White House, 'The one person whose actions have been exemplary will be at work tomorrow in Cambridge...Maybe it's a guy thing. She doesn't like beer, anyway.'"
Mark it in the record books: In his first start since throwing a perfect game, White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle threw five-and-two-thirds more perfect innings on Tuesday night. His 45 consecutive outs is a Major League Baseball record. The previous record of 41 consecutive outs was set by Jim Barr in 1972 and tied by Buehrle’s teammate Bobby Jenks in 2007. The night, however, did not end well for Buehrle: After losing his perfect game in the sixth, he gave up five runs and ended up with the loss.
It’s no surprise that someone wants to see Sacha Baron Cohen dead—but when it’s someone who has the means to do it, well, that’s a little different. A bona fide terrorist organization featured in Brüno is less than enthused about their portrayal in the film because of its inclusion of homosexuality and has threatened to make Cohen pay for it. “We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man,” said the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a coalition of Palestinian militias depicted in the film. “The movie was part of a conspiracy against [us].” Cohen is taking the statement from the group, which is alleged to be responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and shootings, seriously and has upped security measures for himself and his family. But he may have more than his own safety to worry about: The Martyrs’ Brigade member featured in the movie, Ayman Abu Aita, said that he was tricked into appearing in Brüno and is threatening to sue Cohen. “This joke is very dangerous,” said Abu Aita, who is no longer involved with the group. “We are not in the United States, we are not in Europe, we are in the Middle East and the world operates differently here.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell jumped into the fray on issues surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Tuesday night with a rebuke of the Harvard professor. Having been the victim of racial profiling "many times" himself, Powell said Gates should have practiced more restraint with the police officer who arrested him. "I think [Gates] should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal," Powell said on Larry King Live of the Gates' interaction with Sgt. James Crowley. Powell scolded the Cambridge Police Department as well, but emphasized controlling one's anger: "There is no African American in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation," Powell said. "Do you get angry? Yes. Do you manifest that anger? Do you protest? Do you try to get things fixed? But it's the better course of action to try and take it easy and don’t let your anger make the current situation worse."
Sunni-Shiite is so 2007. Visiting the Kurdish region of Iraq on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates cited Kurd-Arab tensions as the greatest threat to Iraqi national security. General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, seconded Gates’ diagnosis, calling the conflict in northern Iraq the “no. 1 driver of instability." In a meeting with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, Gates apparently stressed that he supports U.N. recommendations on how to resolve disputes between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds.
Who knew that prison would look good on Bernie Madoff? The “buff-looking” Ponzi schemer gave his first interview since being sentenced to 150 years in a North Carolina prison on Tuesday, speaking candidly with a pair of San Francisco lawyers about his life outside the law. “There were several times that I met with the SEC and thought ‘they got me,’” Madoff told Joseph Cotchett in the four-and-a-half-hour interview. Madoff agreed to sit down with the pair after they threatened to sue his wife, Ruth Madoff: “He cares about Ruth,” Cotchett said. “But he doesn’t give a [expletive] about his two sons, Mark and Andrew,” whom Cotchett also threatened to sue. According to the lawyer, Madoff was “very articulate, very direct” and spoke openly without holding back.
Politics and media, getting cozy? The Washington Post reports that The Huffington Post has hired Ethan Axelrod, the son of White House senior adviser David Axelrod. "I've been interested in journalism for a while," the 22-year-old Ethan said Tuesday. "I heard through my father that they were expanding, so I applied for it." Ethan will work for The Huffington Post’s new Denver site, which will go live in September. His father also began his career as a journalist, and once worked for the Chicago Tribune.
Christopher Hitchens is at the top of his game in his latest column, on Skip Gates. After sharing a few stories about his own run-ins with the cops—“I was screeched at by a stringy-haired, rat-faced blond beast, who acted as if she had been waiting all year for the chance to hurt someone”—he hits his stride: “It is monstrous in the extreme that he should in that home be handcuffed, and then taken downtown, after it had been plainly established that he was indeed the householder. … It is the U.S. Constitution, and not some competitive agglomeration of communities or constituencies, that makes a citizen the sovereign of his own home and privacy. There is absolutely no legal requirement to be polite in the defense of this right. And such rights cannot be negotiated away over beer.”
Can a party divided against itself stand? The Hill reports on the growing tension between the liberal and moderate wings of the Democratic Party over health care. After a bipartisan group of senators led by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) signaled it would kill a public option, liberals like Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) are preparing a volley of markups to restore their priorities. The House legislation, meanwhile, is stalled in the Energy and Commerce Committee, and is no longer expected to be passed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) August deadline. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has now hinted that Democrats should run liberals against moderate Blue Dogs in coming primaries. The Hill calls the looming Senate showdown “arguably the most difficult decision of [Harry Reid’s] career.”
Apparently, tanning beds are as bad for you as asbestos, arsenic, radium, and cigarettes. The ultraviolet light in the beds causes cancer, according to a new report by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. The Los Angeles Times reports that, according to the study, using tanning beds before age 30 increases a person's risk of skin cancer by 75 percent. More importantly, the special committee that conducted the review concluded that all UV radiation induces cancer, not just UV-B rays, as was previously thought, but also the UV-A rays that some tanning salons claim are safer. No one has to commit to a colorless future, though: The American Cancer Society suggests the use of bronzing creams as a safe alternative.
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