The Hollywood Liberal

Thorny issues remain as Congress negotiates financial regulatory overhaul
One evening late last week, as House and Senate negotiators wound down another marathon session hammering out details of a massive financial regulatory overhaul, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) uttered what almost everyone else in the room was thinking.


United States – Business – United States Congress – Congress – Financial Services

Obama steps up fatherhood advocacy with new mentoring initiative
President Obama visited an arts and recreation campus in a low-income Washington neighborhood Monday to tout the importance of fatherhood, and announced a new effort to bring together children, famous dads and nonprofit groups to promote the father-child relationship.


Barack Obama – United States – President – Father – Father’s Day

Obama uses powers to expand federal rights, benefits for gays and lesbians
In the past year and a half, President Obama has quietly used his powers to expand federal rights and benefits for gays and lesbians, targeting one government restriction after another in an attempt to change public policy while avoiding a confrontation with Republicans and opponents of gay rights.


Lesbian – Barack Obama – President – Gay Lesbian and Bisexual – United States

Congress strikes deal on tougher sanctions for Iran’s suppliers
U.S. lawmakers on Monday reached agreement on legislation that would penalize Iran’s business partners for selling the country gasoline, investing in its refineries, or providing financial services to firms linked to its political and military elite.


Iran – United States Congress – Middle East – United Nations Security Council – United States

Why Was Stimulus Off the Mark?
Gregory Mankiw, National Affairs
To understand the challenge government economists have faced over the past year and a half, it is useful to imagine the case of a physician trying to treat an ill patient. The patient presents herself in terrible shape; the physician has never treated a condition with symptoms quite like hers before; and the causes of the ailments are unclear. The doctor remembers reading about a similar case in medical school — and, trying to recall as much of his training as possible, he endeavors to come up with a theory as to why the patient is sick and to determine what will make her better.In…

Murtha’s District Considers Life With Less Pork

Spilled Oil: Our Summer of Discontent
Hendrik Hertzberg, New Yorker
For the young Presidency of Barack Obama, and for the nation, this hellish summer of discontent started in balmy spring, on the evening of April 20th, forty miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. At first, after the explosion aboard the giant oil rig Deepwater Horizon, the rig's operator, BP, estimated the resulting flow at a thousand barrels a day. A nasty business, yes. But at that rate it would have taken eight months to approach the level of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and eight years to equal the record for the Gulf, set in 1980 at Ixtoc, off the Mexican coast.By May…

Obama Must Push for Tough & Ambitious Energy Bill