Well, that was pointless. After shifting rationales, unreliable claims of bravado and the resignation of top staffers, the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure has reversed its decision to de-fund Planned Parenthood, reinstating its donation to support breast cancer screenings at the organization’s clinics. Foundation President Nancy Brinker announced the reversal. I hope Susan [...]

TBogg has already done the heavy lifting here, so just a comment or two about the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity dropping its support for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. Unless they are putting all that money into finding that cure for breast cancer they’ve been chasing all these years, the practical [...]

I wrote previously about Ron Paul’s newsletters, and I still think there’s reason to condemn not only the writings but the worldview they espouse, one which Paul embraces even as he disavows some of the finer points of the newsletters. But I think there’s more to say about this incident and what it means about [...]

Herman Cain responded to his 9-9-9 plan problem (namely, that it massively redistributes wealth upward) in a speech today. He did it with a couple alterations. First, he eliminated the 9% income tax for individuals making below the poverty line. I thought this was the entire complaint of the 53%ers, that too many Americans don’t [...]

The Economic Policy Institute is a small policy shop in Washington, established 25 years ago. They have a blog. They do pretty good work. Their funding is transparent, and it mostly comes from foundation grants, with another healthy slice from labor unions. Their reach – and their budget – is nothing close to that of [...]

Anders Behring Breivik, the man who orchestrated the horrific attacks in Norway on Friday, appeared in court for the first time today, and claimed that he has “two more cells” working in concert with him. Mr Breivik had earlier said he had acted alone. Prosecutor Christian Hatlo said police could not rule out that someone [...]

Putting aside Barack Obama for a second, where are the Republicans on the debt limit talks right now? We know Mitch McConnell’s position, essentially a surrender. But with the spending cuts and commission processes tacked onto it, it starts to look like a surrender in the other direction. No matter, though: Jim DeMint will work [...]

I think what drove Mitch McConnell to offer up a surrender plan for the debt limit, and what prompted Republicans to go completely off the rails, is when President Obama played the Social Security card the other day, saying that he couldn’t guarantee that checks would be able to go out. This is a mathematical [...]

It’s hard to deduce a unified Tea Party theory of the debt limit, but as far as I can tell, the story goes that, when the debt limit is reached, the government can simply prioritize payment to debt service and pick and choose who else to pay out of existing government revenue. This will force [...]

Since the 2010 election, conservative legislatures in practically every state have almost immediately plunked down a spate of bills with a very unified focus, attacking unions, Planned Parenthood, and cherished social programs. If you have wondered about the shelf where all this legislation sits and waits for conservatives to marshal their numbers, it’s located at [...]

Tim Geithner has issued another ultimatum, asking that the debt limit be increased in July, before we get close to that August 2 deadline where the US would be forced into default. He also again remarked that Republicans have assured him they will increase the debt limit before that default date ever comes. This again [...]