Morning Briefing: 4 October 2010

Many chilly to idea of topless rights for women [via The Berkshire Eagle] Voters in Pittsfield, Mass. Tuesday voted down a non-binding referendum urging their state representative to introduce legislation to allow “females of any age may be unclothed from the waist up in public anywhere males may be, including in print and on film.” [...]

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Obama’s ‘Heckuva Job’ on the “Daily Show”

Today’s hot topic is President Barack Obama’s half-hour interview last night on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Obama and Stewart discussed the stimulus, the healthcare bill and job creation, all areas the president and Democrats have taken heavy fire. The interview was markedly unhumorous excepting a handful of moments when Stewart prodded the president, [...]

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Rahm’s Departure Highlights Democrats’ Electoral Problems

A New York Times article published a little over a year ago suggested that Rahm Emanuel was “emerging as perhaps the most influential White House chief of staff in a generation.” The article asserted that As the principal author of Mr. Obama’s do-everything-at-once strategy, he stands to become a figure of consequence in his own [...]

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Post-Mortem: GOP blocks DADT Repeal

Yesterday Senate Democrats failed to garner enough votes to invoke cloture and prevent Republicans from filibustering a defense bill with several liberal riders, including a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Dream Act, which would pave the way for illegal immigrants with college degrees or military service to gain citizenship. The bill was [...]

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Morning Briefing: 6 September 2010

Are You Reading What He’s Reading? [via The New York Times] Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, “Freedom,” was likely to be a bestseller, but when news leaked that President Barack Obama had obtained a copy before its publication date, sales were pushed “over the top.” Obama has previously given sales bumps to Joseph O’Neill’s “Netherland” and [...]

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Iraq Speech Shows Obama Focused on Domestic Issues

Please welcome to the blog contributor Bertel King, Jr. You can find out more about him at the About page. The two things that stick with me the most from Obama’s speech last night both came at the end: that “some [American soldiers] were teenagers when the war began” and that the 4,000-plus people who [...]

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Obama Has Yet to Speak, But the Internet is Atwitter

President Barack Obama and the White House are gearing up to discuss the end of combat operations in Iraq tomorrow night during a primetime Oval Office address, Obama’s second. Monday Obama presented 11 Purple Hearts at Walter Reed Naval Hospital, and Vice President Joe Biden has flown to Iraq. Obama even intends to call his [...]

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