The Hollywood Liberal

The Fix: Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman and the Bill Clinton “trap”
If former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (R) beats state Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) in the California governor’s race this fall, she may have former President Bill Clinton to thank for the win.



Jerry Brown – Bill Clinton – Meg Whitman – California – United States

New Medicare chief speaks out on health care
The nation’s health-care system cannot be transformed by rationing medical care, Donald Berwick – President Obama’s new Medicare chief – said Monday in his first major speech.


United States – Donald Berwick – Medicare – Barack Obama – Politics

In Del., GOP comes out swinging against tea party
WILMINGTON, DEL. – It’s the “tea party” vs. the Republican Party in Tuesday’s Senate primary in Delaware, where a popular moderate is suddenly under siege from a little-known conservative who in any other year might have been relegated to the footnotes of 2010’s election records.


Republican – United States – Politics – Parties – Tea

Federal Eye: Judge’s impeachment trial begins in Senate
The first Senate impeachment trial in more than a decade begins Monday as senators meet to consider removing U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr.


Impeachment – United States – Bill Clinton – Senate – President

Jobless are straining Social Security’s disability benefits program
The number of former workers seeking Social Security disability benefits has spiked with the nation’s economic problems, heightening concern that the jobless are expanding the program beyond its intended purpose of aiding the disabled.


Social Security – Law – United States – Services – Lawyers and Law Firms

What’s Behind the New McCarthyism
Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast
With each new attack on a mosque, each new anti-Muslim slur by a prominent politician or pundit, each new poll showing that large swaths of Americans think President Obama is lying about his faith, it becomes clearer that we are in the midst of a national psychosis: the worst spasm of paranoia and bigotry of the post-Cold War age. The interesting question is: Why now?The answer lies in the intersection of isolationism and war. At first glance, it seems odd that America is witnessing this eruption of anti-Muslim hate now rather than immediately after the 9/11 attacks. But historically,…

Big Banks Still Not Leveling With Us
Charles Gasparino, The Daily Beast
Citigroup, the most bailed out and dysfunctional of the big financial houses, has been acting extra-stupidly lately by barring an influential analyst who had the gall to question the bank’s accounting practices from meeting its senior executives. Following reporting by myself and others at Fox Business Network, Citi CEO Vikram Pandit has relented: The analyst, Mike Mayo, will get his long-awaited meeting with Citigroup brass, including Pandit himself.

One Imam, Multiple Messages
Ibn Warraq, National Review Online
Journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has made some grave accusations against those who oppose the building of the Islamic center near Ground Zero, and has predicated his own approval of the project on the moderateness of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Zakaria wrote that Abdul Rauf “has said one or two things about American foreign policy that strike me as overly critical — but it’s stuff you could read on The Huffington Post any day.”

Big Bank Bonuses Are Back