Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Republicans The Party of No!
Republicans pivoted immediately from "kill the bill" to "repeal the deal.' Reacting to defeat in the manner of a spoiled child taking away the ball after losing a game, Senator John McCain, once known for his independence, led a chorus of Republicans vowing "no cooperation" on any future issue. It will be hard to tell the difference. Most Americans are only beginning to sense just how unified the Republican minority has been in obstruction. Record filibusters in the Senate. Unprecedented holds on Obama appointees. Not one vote from Republicans for health care reform in the House or Senate. Not one Republican vote in the House for financial reform. Not one Republican vote in the Senate banking committee. Republicans even filibustered the recovery plan after their members had worked to weaken it. They bet early and often on Obama's failure - and it appears to be paying off.
Republicans have been salivating about their prospects in the fall elections. Newt Gingrich predicts they will take control of both Houses. Prognosticators expect big gains. If Republicans gain significant seats, what will be the mandate? What are they for? You can't tell from this Congress. They've chosen simply to stand in the way.
This isn't an accident. It is, as George W. Bush would say, "strategery." You may think elections should provide voters with a clear choice, each candidate detailing where he or she would take the country, but today's politics are defined by the 30 second attack ad, not Lincoln-Douglas debates. (And that's the tame part. The health care debate was punctuated by racial and homophobic slurs, a brick through the home office window of a Democratic legislator, death threats and more)
Sprint Launches First 4G Phone
Sprint Launches First 4G Phone, HTC Evo 4G (Phone Scoop)
Sprint Launches First 4G Phone, HTC Evo 4G
Yesterday, 3:47 PM by Philip Berne updated Yesterday, 6:07 PM
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, speaking at CTIA Wireless 2010 in Las Vegas, launched the first phone to take advantage of the carrier's WiMAX network. The HTC Evo 4G is an Android smartphone with a 4.3-inch screen, similar in size and shape to the Windows Mobile-powered HTC HD2. The phone features HD video recording and an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. It also includes a 1.3 megapixel user-facing camera for video sharing features. To watch HD videos on a larger screen, the phone also features an HDMI output. The interface is the newest HTC Sense UI concept for Android, including the new friend stream feature that aggregates updates from a variety of social networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Inside, the phone uses the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. The phone will also use Adobe Flash in the Web browser.
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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Obama, Democrats Begin Reaping Political Benefits Of Reform
Obama, Democrats Begin Reaping Political Benefits Of Reform
Only hours after the president signed health care reform legislation into law on Tuesday, the immediate political benefits for the Democratic Party are already coming into focus.
According to a Gallup/USA Today poll conducted the day after health care legislation passed the House of Representatives, 49 percent of the respondents think the passage of reform is a "good thing," compared to the 40 percent who think it is bad. The numbers are a welcome relief for a party and a presidency that had been bleeding popular support over the course of the past six months.
Democrats didn't just get a health-care-related boost in the realm of public opinion. The Democratic National Committee reported raising more than $1 million in donations on Tuesday even without making a direct ask. The money is expected to pour in for other campaign committees as well.
Responding to the growing GOP effort to get the legislation repealed, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a new fundraising toolbar on its website, pointing out which Republican senatorial candidates are ready to take away what particular benefits of reform.
Meanwhile, over at the White House the mood was downright jubilant. Days before health care reform passed, the consensus among top officials was that the president could survive a legislative defeat but the party would crumble around him. The polling numbers had risen a bit since Obama confronted House Republicans during their retreat at Baltimore in January. But they were still lethargic and a cause for concern.
More than anything else, a GOP victory would have crystallized the perception that the administration had squandered a historic opportunity to get business done; that Waterloo -- as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) threatened -- had indeed happened.
And in that sense, Tuesday's signing ceremony was as much a celebration of the past year as a chance for the administration to breathe a bit easier. Speaking just hours after the president made health care reform the law of the land, David Axelrod -- Obama's closest senior strategist -- was asked about the edge of the precipice upon which this White House once stood.
"Someone said this might be your Waterloo," PBS's Charlie Rose asked. "What happened? You were Wellington and not Napoleon."
"Exactly," Axelrod replied. "I think it all worked out better than anyone anticipated. But way back in the spring, Senator DeMint said if we can just defeat Obama on health care, his presidency will be crippled, and that we'll benefit from that. We don't think that way. We want to move this country forward, and we're willing to work with them to do it."
