Recess appointments: Obama loses, but the presidency mostly prevails A loss for the president, a win for the presidency. That’s the best way to describe the Supreme Court’s landmark decision Thursday on the “recess appointment” power–the president’s power to fill government posts when the Senate isn’t in session. Technically speaking, the Obama administration lost 9-0, with not…
An insider’s battle plan: ‘Elections are about winning. Period’ A “2014 Election Cycle Budget” of $3.983 million was laid out nearly a year ago when Enterprise Washington, a business and industry political committee, displayed its wares to the Washington Retail Association. Power in the Washington Legislature was the message of the Powerpoint presentation, announced on page…
Conservative freakout blames ‘Uncle Tom’ and voter fraud for McDaniel loss in Mississippi Senate primary Some conservatives aren’t happy that their preferred candidate, state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) lost to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in the runoff of the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Mississippi. Many tea party types are openly speculating foul play…
Obama alums join anti teachers union case Teachers unions are girding for a tough fight to defend tenure laws against a coming blitz of lawsuits—and an all-out public relations campaign led by former aides to President Barack Obama. The Incite Agency, founded by former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt,…
Republicans finally admit why they really hate Obamacare Conservatives spent years predicting Obamacare would collapse in all manner of gloomy scenarios. But those predictions all occurred in the run-up to the law coming on-line, on the basis of sketchy, preliminary data or pure conjecture. But in the months since the law has come into effect,…
In Wichita, Koch influence is revered and reviled In national politics, playing in Charles Koch’s arena can mean saturation advertising against vulnerable Democrats, calls for tax cuts, demands to roll back government regulation, and bitter clashes over climate change. Here in the windswept hometown of the Koch family and Koch Industries, playing in Charles Koch Arena means something…
The audacious new proposal to save the labor movement As president of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), Dave Regan is well aware that over the past several decades, the number of American workers who are part of a labor union has declined fairly steadily—and the scales of power have continued to tip from workers…
Warren Buffett’s warning to SF spotlights the dangers of Wall Street’s “alternative investment” schemes As the process of financializing the American economy accelerates, high-flying private equity executives, venture capitalists, and hedge fund managers are increasingly reaching their tentacles into everything. From tech to energy to health care, you name the sector and a so-called alternative investment company and its profit-taking fees are…
How the ‘War on Terror’ became a war on the Constitution America has entered its third great era: the post-constitutional one. In the first, in the colonial years, a unitary executive, the King of England, ruled without checks and balances, allowing no freedom of speech, due process, or privacy when it came to protecting his…
Op-Ed How the insurance industry sees climate change Twenty years ago, I interviewed Frank Nutter, then and now president of the Reinsurance Assn. of America, on the threat climate change posed to the $2-trillion-plus global property and casualty insurance industry. “It is clear,” he said back then, “that global warming could bankrupt the industry.” But in the two…