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Amid heckling, Obama defends drone strikes, vows to close Guantanamo

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:20:22 -0400

Saying it's time "to fight terrorists without keeping America on a perpetual war-time footing," President Barack Obama invited Congress in a speech on Thursday to help him scale back the country's 12-year conflict against al-Qaida and its affiliates. "America is at a crossroads. We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else [...]

Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin heckles Obama

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:55:21 -0400

President Barack Obama's planned counterterrorism speech was temporarily derailed several times Thursday when activist Medea Benjamin shouted criticisms of the administration's use of drones and operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Benjamin, co-founder of peace activist group Code Pink, was seated in the audience at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., where Obama gave [...]

Anthony Weiner logo appears to feature Pittsburgh skyline

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:32:43 -0400

Anthony Weiner's nascent New York City mayoral campaign might have hit a slight snag. Azi Paybarah at Capital New York notes on Thursday that the skyline featured in a banner on Weiner's campaign site appears to picture the lovely city of Pittsburgh, not New York. Weiner announced his candidacy in a video posted to the [...]

Anthony Weiner courts NYC voters: ‘It’s a second-chance city, man!’

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:02:26 -0400

Mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner made his first appearance on Thursday since declaring his candidacy, apologizing again for his bizarre, Internet-only infidelity scandal that forced him out of Congress nearly two years ago. "There may be people who will never vote for me, and I respect that," Weiner told the phalanx of reporters who surrounded him [...]

How many students from your school take out loans?

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:51:08 -0400

Every school that participates in the federal loan program reports figures like these to the Department of Education. The following interactive plots every school with at least 1,000 undergraduates by two values: Net cost of attendance after grants and the percentage of students with loans.

IRS' Lois Lerner Takes Fifth, Shuns Congress

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:21:06 -0400

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s director of Exempt Organizations who is at the center of the controversy after the agency targeted conservative organizations for gratuitous scrutiny, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination today at a congressional hearing examining the scandal. Lerner quietly took...

IRS 'Blemish' Prompts Scorn From Senators

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:37:24 -0400

Douglas Shulman, the former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said today he was “dismayed and saddened” that his agency had improperly targeting conservative groups, but declined to offer a direct apology and dismissed suggestions that he mislead Congress. The testimony from Shulman, who was...

Christie Stars in NJ Tourism Ads, Dems Cry Foul

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:20:24 -0400

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family are starring in television commercials that are part of a publicly funded $25 million tourism campaign to encourage people to visit the Jersey Shore after Superstorm Sandy, but Democrats say they are simply taxpayer-funded campaign ads. The...

GOP Lieutenant Governor Candidate in Va. Compares Planned Parenthood to KKK

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:12:16 -0400

This weekend, Virginia Republicans found their candidate for lieutenant governor in E.W. Jackson, a Chesapeake, Va. pastor who has compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and also suggested that black Americans are being enslaved by the Democratic Party. “It is time to end...

Republicans Informed of IRS Investigation Last Year

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:56:15 -0400

Much has been made of the fact that senior Treasury Department officials were told about the investigation into the treatment of tea party groups in June 2012 — months before last year’s the Presidential election. Republicans who requested the investigation were also told about it...

House immigration group resolves dispute

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:36:37 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — House members writing a bipartisan immigration bill said Thursday they had patched over a dispute that threatened their efforts, even as they and the rest of Congress prepared to return home for a weeklong recess where many could confront voters' questions on the issue.

House backs variable rate student loans

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:33:38 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dismissing a veto threat from President Barack Obama, lawmakers in the House passed legislation that links student loan rates to the ups and downs of the financial markets in a vote largely along party lines.

US criticized over response to Indonesia attacks

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:29:23 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is expressing concern over increased attacks on religious minorities in Indonesia, but human rights groups accuse Washington of downplaying the problem as it looks to forge stronger relations with Jakarta.

GOP Ariz. rep. who supports Medicaid is threatened

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:18:20 -0400

PHOENIX (AP) — A Republican member of the Arizona House says she received an obscene and threatening voicemail at her office because she supports Gov. Jan Brewer's push to expand Medicaid.

Obama: Policy in leaks investigations under review

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:07:46 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday that the Justice Department will review the policy under which it obtains journalists' records in investigations of the leak of government secrets.

Obama’s 20 Steps to Counterterrorism

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:23:57 -0400

In his first major counterterrorism address of his second term, President Obama outlined several steps that his administration will take to fight terrorism both at home and abroad.

The Edge: The Beginning of the End of the War on Terror

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:23:04 -0400

The Edge is National Journal's daily look at today in Washington -- and what's coming next. The email features analysis from NJ's top correspondents, the biggest stories of the day -- and always a few surprises. To subscribe, click here.

How Reince Priebus Crossed the Line

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:09:03 -0400

If you wonder whether (and how) the IRS scandal and related White House shenanigans could backfire on Republicans, watch Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.

The Beginning of the End of the War on Terror

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:09:00 -0400

IN THE NEWS: Obama outlines shift in drone, Gitmo policy … Pritzker hearing off to cordial start … Senate confirms important judicial candidate … Filibuster talk heats up … Parties push for House retirements … BYU as farm team for animation studios ... Obama at the promTHE TAKE

House Immigration 'Gang' Struggles, GOP Hints at Republican Bill

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:55:29 -0400

As the House group struggling to write a bipartisan immigration bill huddled in the Capitol on Thursday, Republican leadership indicated its wait-and-see approach was over.

Anthony Weiner Covers Up a New Photo Scandal: Mistaking NYC for Pittsburgh

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:34:39 -0400

If you thought Anthony Weiner was out ahead of the photo scandals in his comeback race for New York City mayor, well, that was fast: His new official campaign website switched up its main logo late Thursday afternoon to this...

Medea Benjamin's Two-Step Verified Trick to Sneaking Around Washington

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:02:24 -0400

Code Pink protester Medea Benjamin got herself inside the National Defense University in Washington on Thursday for President Obama's big speech about drones, even though she's been a famous heckler in Washington for a decade. Indeed, she's been seen and heard at many big political events over the last year: at CIA chief John Brennan's confirmation hearing, the NRA's Wayne LaPierre's press conference, the Republican National Convention. As Financial Times reporter Anna Fifield tweeted, "amazing how Medea Benjamin of @codepink gets in to all these speeches. ...

The Time President Obama Talked to a Code Pink Heckler

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:41:25 -0400

There ended up being two speakers today at the National Defense University in DC. The first, as planned, was President Obama. The other, speaking for perhaps a few minutes in total, was Madea Benjamin, a heckler from Code Pink.

A Global War on Terror by Another Name Doesn't Tell Us How to Succeed

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:09:45 -0400

President Obama rejected the Bush-era term Global War on Terrorism in a major speech justifying and announcing changes to his counterterrorism policies at the National Defense University on Thursday. "Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless 'global war on terror' – but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America," Obama said. Never mind that the Obama administration stopped using the term in early 2009. ...

Obama's New Drone Policy, in One Easy Flowchart

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:02:28 -0400

As a component of his policy speech on "new tools to prevent terror" Thursday afternoon, President Obama outlined the steps that would now be required for the government to launch a remote drone strike on a terror suspect. His version involved a lot of words. We made it simpler.

A Search for the Truth on Secret Courts for Surveillance — and Drones

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:29:49 -0400

At some point, the federal government violated the U.S. Constitution while conducting electronic surveillance. Discovering the details of that violation, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to do, involves unlocking two of the most impenetrable obstructions known to man: secrecy and bureaucracy. Meet the secret court that authorizes surveillance — the sort of tool Obama offers as one way in which his drone program might be made more transparent.

Watch: Obama Unveils His Big Drone Plan

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:58:29 -0400

President Obama is about to deliver his major policy speech outlining the future of America's military drone program, and the future of the entire war on terror, though he doesn't want us to call it that anymore. The administration has been setting the stage for the last couple days, first by admitting that the U.S. has indeed killed American citizens with drone attacks overseas, but also by having aides promise that he intends to lay out the rationale for any future uses of the controversial weapons. ...

Anthony Weiner Is Beating the Tabloids at Their Own Game on His New Selfies

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:51:36 -0400

Anthony Weiner sending out naughty pictures of himself to random women on the Internet — it's been a tantalizing storyline for almost exactly two years because of the mystery (are there more?) and the agony (can he survive?). Now that he's running for mayor and advancing his plan of pre-emptive damage control, has Weiner already takend the scandal out of the next scandal, when more selfies from his last days in Congress inevitably surface?

Watch the other hand: Immigration reform advances under cover of scandals

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:58:12 -0400

While some of President Obama's most outspoken critics are working overtime to expose details of the various scandals plaguing his administration these days, it seems there are games afoot on Capitol Hill -- specifically, the little-noticed advancement of the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform proposal.

A False Claim of Blame in Mass. Senate Race

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:21:09 -0400

Republican Gabriel Gomez falsely claims his opponent in the Massachusetts Senate race blamed him for the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and compared him to Osama bin Laden: Democratic Rep. Ed Markey did release a TV ad saying Gomez “is against banning high-capacity magazines like the ones used in the … More

Obama's Prom Was Cooler Than Yours

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:01:43 -0400

We now know what Barry Obama and his date looked like at prom in 1979 -- and they probably looked better than you. What has become clear as more and more details of Obama's childhood have been unearthed is that Hawaii is the best place ever to be a teenager. Just look at that photo, provided by Obama's prom date to Time magazine. Even their prom fashion is not hideous.

Obama's Forever War Doesn't End Today

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:57:23 -0400

President Obama will say he sees a day when the War on Terror comes to an end in a much anticipated speech at the National Defense University on Thursday. That day is not today. Control over drone strikes will move from the CIA to the military, The New York Times' Charlie Savage and Peter Baker report. The transition is expected to take six months, and Obama might not address it explicitly, because the CIA program is classified. ...

Harry Reid Has a Not-Quite-Nuclear Plan to Upend the Senate Filibuster

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:41:17 -0400

Later this summer, the Senate may at last tackle a highly controversial issue: whether or not it should approve executive branch nominations decisions based on a majority vote. In doing so, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will ironically be taking on the warped new interpretation of Senatorial courtesy.

Photos: What Obama looked like on prom night

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:45:24 -0400

With a trio of scandals swirling around the White House, President Barack Obama could use some good press. Time magazine did its best to deliver just that on Thursday, releasing some vintage photos of a then 17-year-old Obama on prom night. The magazine obtained the photos from Kelli Allman (née McCormack), Obama's classmate at Punahou [...]

Jon Stewart and the Ghosts of Presidential Scandals Past

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:39:23 -0400

Jon Stewart last night turned his attention to Ronald Reagan "fan fiction" author (and, you know, Wall Street Journal columnist) Peggy Noonan, who is angry at Barack Obama for his recent scandals, but gives her former boss a pass for a little thing like Iran-Contra.

Sen. Ted Cruz Refuses to Play the Game: ‘Let Me Be Clear, I Don’t Trust the Republicans’

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:32:09 -0400

"Unfortunately, one of the reasons we got into this mess is because a lot of Republicans were complicit in this spending spree."

New Yorkers Weigh Anthony Weiner's Bid for Political Salvation

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:19:00 -0400

Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who infamously fled Congress after his sexting and Twitter scandals two years ago, told New Yorkers this week he wants to be their next mayor.