NewsTrust - U.S. Senate - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

The Most Powerful Special Interest in Washington: The Acronym

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Micah Cohen - May. 20 (Opinion) - A linguistic plague is creeping through the nation's capital - the "bacronym," where a PAC or bill name is chosen so that the initial letters of each word form a desired word.

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Bernanke Gets 75% Approval From Investors in Global Poll

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:36:00 -0700

Bloomberg - May. 10 - Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, delivers his semi-annual monetary policy report to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington, D.C., on March 1, 2012. Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, delivers his semi-annual

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Obama: Buffett rule about the future

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:44:00 -0700

The Politico - By Jennifer Epstein - Apr. 10 - President Barack Obama laid out a case for the Buffett rule Tuesday that what’s at stake isn’t just fairness — it’s the future. The president made the pitch in a campaign-style speech to students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, connecting i

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Tennessee bill protects teachers who challenge evolution and climate change

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Suzanne Goldenberg - Mar. 21 - State legislature gives legal protection to teachers who do not believe in the science and want to debate alternate explanations The state legislature of Tennessee has given legal cover to public school teachers to challenge the science of evolution and climate change, in a move that looks set to deepen a debate about politicisation of the classroom. The bill passed in the Tennessee Senate this week provides legal protection to teachers who personally do not believe in evolution or the human causes of climate change, and instead want to teach the "scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories". It comes at a time when science associations are increasingly concerned by moves to inject religious or ideological beliefs into science teaching ahead of the release next month of a new set of education standards which give a central place to climate change. The new standards, based on recommendations from the National Research Council, are not mandatory for all states. ...

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Obama-GOP battle turns ruthless

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By David Frum - Jan. 09 (Opinion) - Watch the Republican primaries, and you can feel: the American political system is working. The GOP is discarding the unqualified and irresponsible candidates and rapidly converging on the person in the race who could actually do the job of president. But the week's second biggest political story shows a very different reality: a political system careening toward crisis. This is the story of the battle over President Barack Obama's nomination of Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By WSJ Editorial Board - Dec. 21 (Opinion) - GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest. The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play. Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his Presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.

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U.S. Senate Passes Iran Oil Sanctions as EU Blacklist Grows

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:51:00 -0800

Business Week - Dec. 02 - (Updates with oil settlement prices in 11th paragraph.) Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate took aim at the Iranian central bank in an effort to choke off oil exports, while the European Union stopped short of targeting crude as it tightened sanctions

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Senate Wants The Military To Lock You Up Without Trial

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:45:00 -0800

Wired - Dec. 01 - Here’s the best thing that can be said about the new detention powers the Senate has tucked into next year’s defense bill: they don’t force the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial. They just let the military do that. And eve

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Op-Ed Columnist: Things to Tax

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman, New York Times - Nov. 28 (Opinion) - How about making increased revenue part of the remedy? And not just a return to Clinton-era tax rates.

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When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Magazine - By HASH(0x131256b0) - Nov. 21 (Opinion) - "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior can you begin to piece together [his actions]?" It’s a very strange experience to have your friends think you’ve gone crazy. Some will tell you

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Bad Theory, Bad Legislation

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nyt Editorial - Nov. 07 (Opinion) - The House’s campaign to undercut environmental laws has now migrated to the Senate. Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, is expected to offer a resolution this week to block a new federal regulation requiring cuts in soot- and smog-forming gases from power plants ..

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Editorial: Our man in Damascus

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Editorial - Sep. 17 (Opinion) - Why Ambassador Robert S. Ford deserves confirmation.

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Editorial: Blame Congress

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:09:03 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 19 (Opinion) - Congress has failed to enact climate change legislation that would have encouraged innovation.

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Getting to Crazy

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Jul. 15 (Opinion) - Commentators seem shocked at Republican unreasonableness as a debt default looms, but it is the end result of a process that has lasted decades.

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Learning from honest cynic Mitch McConnell

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Jun. 29 (Opinion) - McConnell doesn’t need to be inspiring or jocular. Shouldn’t be, in fact. What he’s saying isn’t inspirational or funny. It’s grim and divisive. And that’s why it’s so important. In a city split between liars and idealists, McConnell is the rarest of all things: an honest cynic.

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Congress Divides on Libya, Moves Toward Key Votes

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Conor Friedersdorf - Jun. 22 (Opinion) - Senators John McCain and John Kerry are from different political parties, but the former presidential candidates have a lot in common: both men fought in Vietnam, voted to authorize the Iraq War, and are now pushing their colleagues to support another war of choice. On Tuesday, they introduced legislation permitting "limited use" of U.S. troops for 12 months in Libya. "It is time to authorize the president's use of force, whether he thinks he needs it or not," McCain said.

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The Problem With Obama’s Re-Election Pitch

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Matt Bai - Jun. 09 (Opinion) - The president's advisers say they are planning to ask voters not to change horses in midstream, but as they should know from the last election, Americans like change.

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What John Edwards meant

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Chris Cillizza - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - The indictment of John Edwards on campaign finance charges amounts to a final chapter — or close to it — in the political life of the former North Carolina senator and two-time presidential candidate. While it’s long been clear that Edwards’ political career is over, there has been relatively little written about what the man meant to the Democratic party he sought to lead.

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Time to Make Case for Progressive Government

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By E.J. Dionne - Apr. 04 (Opinion) - The Ryan budget's central purpose will not be deficit reduction but the gradual dismantling of key parts of government. Remember that Ryan wants both to preserve the Bush tax cuts and, over the long run, to enact more breaks for the wealthy, including the elimination of the capital gains tax.

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NPR's Toothless Defense Strategy

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Howard Kurtz - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - Steve Inskeep, A veteran National Public Radio correspondent, is calling from Cairo, having just visited a 23-year-old man with welts on his back who says the Egyptian Army tortured him. “That, to me, is a real story,” he says. At a time when he is trying to get flak jackets to his colleagues in Libya, Inskeep has little patience for charges that NPR leans to the left. “What’s important to us is the work we do,” he says. “I actually get accused of being a conservative as often as I get accused of being a liberal.” In Chicago, Ira Glass, who hosts This American Life, has used his own network’s airwaves to challenge his bosses for being timid. “Public radio is being hit with a barrage of criticism that it’s left-wing media–biased, reprehensible—and we’re doing nothing to stand up for our brand,” he tells NEWSWEEK. “They’re not responding like a multimedia organization that’s actually growing and superpopular.” These exasperated reporters are speaking out against their embattled company in what amounts to a revolt in the ranks. NPR, reeling from an undercover sting that cost the network its chief executive and a chunk of its credibility, is facing the biggest threat in its 41-year history. The House just voted 228 to 192 to eliminate the federal funding that makes up 10 to 15 percent of public-radio budgets, an effort fueled by longstanding conservative complaints about NPR’s alleged leftist leanings. But with its future on the line, NPR’s decimated management has opted for quiet diplomacy rather than a full-throated defense of one of the few news operations that is actually expanding, reaching an impressive 27 million listeners a week.

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Berkley on Nevada Senate Bid: 'I've Paid My Dues'

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:59:00 -0700

Roll Call - Mar. 16 - Rep. Shelley Berkley says other Nevada Democrats will wait for her to make up her mind about a Senate bid. Shes polling statewide to see how she fares against Rep. Dean Heller. Rep. Shelley Berkley says that even though national Democrats are op

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How Boehner is playing the Democrats

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By E.J. Dionne Jr. - Mar. 07 (Opinion) - Speaker John Boehner is casting himself as the reasonable man fully prepared to reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown. But he also has to satisfy a band of "wild-eyed bomb-throwing freshmen," as he characterized new House members in a Wall Street Journal interview last week by way of comparing them fondly to his younger self.

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Shock wave is coming

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Hill - By Brent Budowsky - Mar. 01 (Opinion) - Those waging war against American workers are winning. Incumbents of both parties will be losing. The next great change election is coming. The economic and political shock wave will be momentous as budget politics will increase joblessness and reveal with brutality that Washington is out of touch with heartland America and dominated by special interests that voters deplore.

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Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Feb. 25 (Opinion) - Madison, Wis., is looking a lot like Baghdad in 2003, with government officials exploiting fiscal crises for fun and profit.

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Democrats Can't Filibuster ObamaCare Repeal

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Karl Rove - Feb. 10 (Opinion) - Democrats harp on the 60-vote threshold and ignore the reconciliation option because they want Americans to accept the inevitability of ObamaCare. But its roots are clearly in shallow soil.

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