Obama administration

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House OKs Credit Card Bill; Obama Up Next

(Newser) - Congress has sent President Obama a bill with sweeping new rules for the credit-card industry that will affect just about every American. The House approved the measure this afternoon, 361-64. The Senate OK'd it yesterday, 90-5. The new restrictions will protect debt-ridden consumers from many of the surprise charges common...

Pelosi's Stubbornness Turns CIA Smoke Into PR Fire

(Newser) - The CIA debacle engulfing Nancy Pelosi stems from two key mistakes on the part of the House speaker, Jay Newton-Small writes in Time. Pelosi’s dangerous belief that media training is “a waste of her time” was demonstrated when she walked away from her own press conference on the...

Fuel-Efficiency Standards May Threaten Safety

Experts say tight rules could push automakers to make smaller cars

(Newser) - President Obama’s new vehicle fuel-efficiency rules have safety experts worried that automakers will comply by churning out smaller, lighter cars—the more likely to kill you with, USA Today reports. Smaller vehicles are an easy route to boost efficiency that can also mean thousands more crash fatalities, but administration...

Senate Blocks Funds for Gitmo Closure

(Newser) - In a major rebuke to President Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly today to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States and denied the administration the millions it sought to close the prison. The 90-6 Senate vote, paired with a similar House action last week, was a clear...

Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing
 Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing 
May 19, 2009 12:33 PM CDT

Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing

(Newser) - President Obama's allies in the Senate will not provide funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January, a top Democratic official said today. With debate looming on Obama's spending request to cover military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official says Democrats will deny the Pentagon...

Clinton to Announce Aid for Pakistan Refugees

(Newser) - Hillary Clinton will detail plans for US humanitarian aid to Pakistan later today, as part of the administration's new strategy for countering the appeal of Taliban militants in the nuclear-armed country. An administration official said the aid package would amount to about $100 million to help Pakistani refugees who have...

Good CEOs Are Boring: Brooks
 Good CEOs Are Boring: Brooks 
OPINION
May 19, 2009 10:07 AM CDT

Good CEOs Are Boring: Brooks

(Newser) - Recent studies have yielded a good picture of the ideal CEO, and the life of the party he ain’t, writes David Brooks in the New York Times. Traits like empathy, good communication skills, and team-building aren’t very important. Flamboyant visionaries rarely work out. No, those who often thrive...

With Emissions Plan, Obama Swings for the Fences
With Emissions Plan, Obama Swings for the Fences
Analysis
May 19, 2009 9:44 AM CDT

With Emissions Plan, Obama Swings for the Fences

(Newser) - The new, strict and streamlined national fuel efficiency standard President Obama will announce today could be a victory on three fronts, the Climate Change argues in a piece running on the New York Times web site. Obama will boost his climate change cred, help floundering automakers, and resolve the federal...

Missile Shield Useless Against Iran's Arsenal: Study

System wouldn't protect Europe; Iran far from nuclear missiles

(Newser) - The US missile shield planned for eastern Europe wouldn’t protect the continent from threats posed by Iranian missiles, a team of American and Russian scientists found. Further, the Washington Post notes, it will be more than 5 years before Iran can build nuclear warheads and missiles to launch them,...

Biden: Secret Bunker? What Secret Bunker?

VP denies he divulged 'undisclosed location' beneath residence

(Newser) - Joe Biden did not—repeat, not—disclose the existence of a bunker at the Naval Observatory used by former VP Dick Cheney, Politico reports. “What the vice president described in his comments was not—as some press reports have suggested—an underground facility,” a Biden aide said today....

Palestinians Must Accept Israel: Netanyahu

(Newser) - In a White House meeting today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately, but any agreement is contingent on their acceptance of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Netanyahu and President Obama met for more than two hours...

Obama Will Streamline Emissions, Fuel Rules for Autos

Federal standard replaces patchwork

(Newser) - President Obama will announce plans for new national automobile fuel-economy and emissions standards tomorrow, overhauling and streamlining the current patchwork, sources tell Politico. The move will harmonize the CAFE standard and the EPA’s greenhouse-gas standard, so that struggling automakers needn’t fear the regulations moving independently. The announcement will...

The White House May Be Trying to Purge Pelosi
The White House May Be Trying
to Purge Pelosi
OPINION
May 18, 2009 12:13 PM CDT

The White House May Be Trying to Purge Pelosi

Kristol: Why else would CIA boss 'humiliate' his party's speaker?

(Newser) - After Nancy Pelosi suggested the CIA had misled Congress, the agency’s director fired back with a letter denying the claim. But the idea that Leon Panetta would send a letter “humiliating a House speaker of his own party” entirely of his own accord seems “almost inconceivable,”...

Six Reasons for Netanyahu and Obama to Clash
Six Reasons for Netanyahu and Obama to Clash
ANALYSIS
May 18, 2009 7:00 AM CDT

Six Reasons for Netanyahu and Obama to Clash

(Newser) - Publicly there will be few fireworks when Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu meet today. But here are the issues the vastly different leaders will wrestle with behind closed doors:
  • The Two-State Solution: It’s the overwhelming international consensus, but Netanyahu insists it would compromise Israel’s security.
  • Iran’s Clock:
...

US Frets as Pakistan Rapidly Expands Nukes

Weapons program complicates Obama's Af-Pak strategy

(Newser) - Pakistan is rapidly building its nuclear arsenal even as it struggles to fight a growing insurgency, reports the New York Times. While Washington remains concerned about the security of Pakistan's 80 to 100 existing weapons, the country is producing uranium and on its way to manufacturing bomb-grade plutonium. US legislators...

Lefties: Obama's Becoming Dubya
 Lefties: Obama's 
 Becoming Dubya 
ANALYSIS
May 17, 2009 9:53 AM CDT

Lefties: Obama's Becoming Dubya

Left feeling spurned by new president's policies

(Newser) - Sorry, ladies: Hell has no fury like a political base scorned, and tensions are simmering among liberals, who feel spurned by President Obama, Josh Gerstein writes for Politico. With his reversals on military tribunals and releasing photos of abused detainees, and reluctance to tackle gay rights and immigration reform, some...

GOP Takes Aim at Obama High Court Noms

(Newser) - Republican groups have already prepared dossiers and attack strategies on a host of possible Obama Supreme Court nominees, the New York Times reports. Ten memos obtained by the Times—all about female judges and scholars—focus on records of abortion rights, gay rights, and the citing of foreign laws. Weakened...

'Rasputin' Axelrod Razzed on NPR Quiz Show

(Newser) - Obama adviser David Axelrod took the bait and appeared for a taping last night of NPR’s quiz show, Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!—with by turns earnest and hilarious results, Politico reports. When host Peter Sagal asked if he’d been in on the presidential pooch...

CIA 'Briefed Truthfully' in '02: Panetta

(Newser) - CIA director Leon Panetta today denied Nancy Pelosi’s claim that the agency misled lawmakers in a 2002 briefing, the Hill reports. In a memo to employees, Panetta said “CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed.’...

To Cut Deficit, Rein in Health Costs: Orszag
To Cut Deficit, Rein in Health Costs: Orszag
OPINION
May 15, 2009 10:35 AM CDT

To Cut Deficit, Rein in Health Costs: Orszag

Budget director makes White House's case for cutting expenses

(Newser) - With the future of Medicare and Social Security in the headlines, the Obama administration is jumping at the chance to push its health care reform agenda. Up today: budget director Peter Orszag. "Slower growth rate in overall health-care spending would help to promote and sustain a slowdown in...

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