The Hollywood Liberal

Mr. Clooney Goes to Washington … for Darfur

George Clooney made his admiration for Barack Obama apparent long before he was elected president, so now that Obama’s officially installed at the White House, Clooney has come a’knockin’—but this wasn’t a celebrity play date.

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Jindal Disses Obama’s Economic Plan

Perhaps keeping an eye on the 2012 election, Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has gone public with his critique of President Barack Obama’s proposed solutions to the country’s economic woes. ThreatDown!

AP via Google News:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who may challenge Obama in 2012, said Tuesday that the Obama-backed stimulus package will “grow the government, increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt.”

Although he said Republicans are willing to work with Obama and congressional Democrats, his remarks continued the generally harsh GOP reactions to Obama’s bid to boost the economy with billions of dollars in spending. The Republican Party chose Jindal to give its official response to the president’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night.

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Taylor Marsh: Calling Sarah Palin
“Oh God,” muttered Chris Matthews, before Gov. Jindal had begun. If you’re going to enter like a wanna be president the least you can…

William Galston: Assurance to the Nation: Obama Delivers First Address to Congress
With an unflinching speech, Barack Obama wagered his presidency on his ability to move an ambitious agenda through the Congress while stabilizing the economy and…

Obama Speech To Congress: REACTION
Pundits have begun to react to President Barack Obama’s speech before both houses of Congress. Below is a roundup of some of the reactions in…

Lee Stranahan: Potential Drug Czar’s Family Connection To Failed Drug War
In the Academy Award winning film Traffic , Michael Douglas plays the nation’s new Drug Czar who discovers just how unwinnable The War On Drugs…

AP falsely reported Obama called Social Security “the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far”

In a February 23 Associated Press article, Liz Sidoti falsely reported that at his fiscal responsibility summit, President Obama “called the long-term solvency of Social Security ‘the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far.’ ” In fact, as blogger Kovie at OpenLeft.com has noted, Obama did not call the long-term solvency of Social Security “the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far”; rather, in delivering the summit’s opening remarks, Obama made that comment in reference to “the rising cost of health care”:

OBAMA: Now, I want to be very clear: While we are making important progress towards fiscal responsibility this year in this budget, this is just the beginning. In the coming years, we’ll be forced to make more tough choices and do much more to address our long-term challenges, from the rising cost of health care that Peter [Orszag, Office of Management and Budget director] described, which is the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far, to the long-term solvency of Social Security.

As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, the 2008 Social Security trustees’ report forecasts that, in the absence of a change in the law, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits until 2041, after which it will be able to cover 78 percent of currently scheduled benefits, going down to 75 percent through the end of the 75-year period the report’s long-range projection covered.

From Sidoti’s February 23 AP article:

Urging strict future restraint even as current spending soars, President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to dramatically slash the skyrocketing annual budget deficit as he started to dole out the record $787 billion economic stimulus package he signed last week.

“If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road,” the president warned, promising to cut the yearly deficit in half by the end of his four-year term. “We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences.”

He said he would reinstitute a pay-as-you-go rule that calls for spending reductions to match increases and would shun what he said were the past few years’ “casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks.” He called the long-term solvency of Social Security “the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far” and said reforming health care, including burgeoning entitlement programs, was a huge priority.

Are Republicans Ready To Mount a Comeback In the Northeast?
It’s so widely accepted as a truth that the Republican Party is clinically dead in the Northeast that no warnings to the contrary would even get a second look. But like so many other sweeping generalizations with more than a grain of truth, the death of the GOP in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states has been greatly exaggerated. True, over the past decade, the GOP has been slaughtered in New England. Republicans don’t control a single state legislative chamber in the six-state region, and Democrats now hold all 21 of New England’s House seats after losing their last holdout, Rep. Christopher Shays, in southwestern Connecticut last year.

A Fatal Trajectory
An increasing number of recent letters and e-mails from readers strike a note, not only of unhappiness with the way things are going in our society, but a note of despair. Those of us who are pessimists are only a step away from despair ourselves, so we may not be the ones to offer the best antidote to the view that America has seen its best days and is degenerating toward what may well be its worst. Yet what hope remains is no less precious nor any less worthy of being preserved.

Thain Must Dish On Bonuses, Rules Court
That was quick! John Thain has been ordered by a New York court to testify about those controversial Merrill Lynch bonuses, reports CNBC. Earlier today, it was reported that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is investigating the bonuses,…

Quelle Surprise: Rove A No-Show, Again, For US Attorneys Testimony
So today was the day that Karl Rove was supposed to appear before the House Judiciary committee to testify about the US Attorney firings. And of course, Rove didn’t show. That wasn’t a surprise. After getting the deadline pushed back,…

The Daily Muck
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac has begun an investigation into its own lobbying activities. The firm spent $2 million dollars to fight regulations that would have required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sell hundreds of billions of dollars worth of…

How You Can Green Your Home and Cash in on Stimulus Money
Energy-saving systems for the attic, basement, and in between have effectively gone on sale, courtesy of the United States Congress.

Twitterers Tweet Back at AlterNet
Our Twitter followers and readers had a lot to say about a recent article slamming Twitter.

A Planet on the Brink: Economic Crash Will Fuel Social Unrest
Governments across the planet are preparing for a surge of violent protests from economic upheaval. Wars may follow.

Obama Is Right to Take on the Very Rich
They’re paying far less of their incomes in taxes than average Americans.

Obama Gets an “A” on Health Care; Needs Improvement on Banks
President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to reform health care tonight. This will be a huge undertaking, which he clearly understands. But, he has repeatedly said that he would make this a top priority and he fully intends to move forward…

Volcano Monitoring
Doesn’t it seem odd for the Governor of Louisiana – a state that suffered the worst natural disaster in recent American history – to be complaining about volcano monitoring?…

Right Wing Outraged At Chas Freeman?s Appointment To Head National Intelligence Council
Last week, Laura Rozen reported (and Politico today confirmed) that President Obama has appointed Middle East Policy Council President Chas W. Freeman to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council — which is responsible for producing national intelligence estimates. Freeman — a former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia who once served as President Nixon’s chief translator […]

Last week, Laura Rozen reported (and Politico today confirmed) that President Obama has appointed Middle East Policy Council President Chas W. Freeman to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council — which is responsible for producing national intelligence estimates.

Freeman — a former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia who once served as President Nixon’s chief translator in China in 1972 — not only opposed the Iraq war, but has demonstrated a commitment to a well-rounded understanding of key U.S. national security issues and the importance of an even-handed U.S. role in the Israel-Palestine dispute:

“We abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel’s efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations. We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists. This has convinced most Palestinians that Israel cannot be appeased and is persuading increasing numbers of them that a two-state solution is infeasible.”

However, Freeman’s views have the right wing outraged (yet some are afraid to go on record) and have “provoked a fierce behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to torpedo the appointment.” Some examples:

– Frank Gaffney: “This is a really serious error. …[Freeman] has compromised the objectivity that one would want in the person whose job it is to oversee the production of National Intelligence Estimates.”

– Steve Rosen: “This is a profoundly disturbing appointment. …Freeman is a strident critic of Israel… His views of the region are what you would expect in the Saudi foreign ministry.”

Gaffney and Rosen echo the right’s discomfort at George Mitchell’s appointment as President Obama’s Israeli-Palestinian envoy. The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss notes, “One of the reasons conservative pro-Israel zealots have been displeased” with Mitchell is because he “has in the past shown that, not only does he recognize how provocative and harmful the [Jewish] settlements [in the West Bank] are, he’s actually been willing to say so in public.”

But some have called Obama’s move an “amazing appointment.” Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Larry Korb said Freeman “is one of the most well-rounded, knowledgeable and fiercely independent people I’ve ever dealt with in or out of government” and that “it’s completely unfair” to question his objectivity. “He’s going to tell it like it is and he doesn’t have any bias. This is a man who interpreted for Richard Nixon in China. I can’t think of a better background,” Korb said.

In GOP Response, Jindal Blasts Stimulus
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) continued his sharp criticism of the stimulus signed into law last week, as the man some Republicans view as the potential savior of their party used his response to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress last night to challenge the vision laid out…

US meeting with Japan’s PM meant to reassure Toky
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday that the United States wants to strengthen ties with Japan, a country Obama described as the cornerstone of U.S. security policy in East Asia and a major U.S. economic partner.

Japanese Prime Minister Meets With Obama, Says Economy Complicates North Korea Talks
The global economic crisis has complicated the effort to end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, diminishing the “cards” for Pyongyang and nations seeking to end its weapons program, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said in an interview yesterday.

Nuclear Iran? Decision Time is Here
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

Jindal Took Fast Track to National Prominence
Philip Rucker, Wash Post

That Can’t-Do Spirit
Bob Herbert, New York Times

Pakistan’s Extremist Triumph
Ahmed Rashid, Los Angeles Times