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The Best In Brief
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"When history calls, history calls," Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said, explaining her aisle-crossing Finance Committee vote for a health-care overhaul Tuesday, even though the bill is far from perfect in her eyes. The Maine moderate has spent much of the health-care debate in the spotlight because she was seen as a swing vote and kept most of Washington guessing what her final verdict on the bill might be. Snowe could be the 60th vote to end a possible Republican filibuster of the bill, and her thumbs up helps the legislation seem a tiny bit bipartisan. Her GOP colleagues are considering ways to punish her for the defection, though she could end up as the sole Republican negotiator when House and Senate versions of the bill are reconciled. And Snowe indicated that she still might not vote for the final bill. Even so, it looks like health care now has enough votes to actually become law.
Is it the economic downturn? Renewed patriotism? Despite near-certainty of being sent to war, hundreds of thousands of people enlisted in the armed services this year, allowing the U.S. military to meet all of its annual recruiting goals for the first time since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973. In recent years, the Army in particular has been forced to drop its standards, admitting high-school dropouts, overweight recruits, and ex-cons. This year, however, 95 percent of the year's recruits have high-school diplomas and only 1.5 percent received the lowest acceptable score on the military's standard qualification test—down from 4 percent in recent years. The Washington Post reports that even experts were surprised with the success: "We delivered beyond anything the framers of the all-volunteer force would have anticipated" said Bill Carr, a deputy undersecretary of Defense. Nonetheless, with many soldiers serving multiple combat tours, many are keeping a wary eye on personnel issues. One Brookings Institute fellow pointed to the possibility of "mass desertion, or people unwilling to stay in" and long-term maintenance of recruitment quotas.
The Environmental Protection Agency has released a scientific report—long-suppressed by the previous administration—that concluded that the government should begin to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions because climate change is a serious threat to the country. Known as an “endangerment finding,” the report was prepared in 2007, but the Bush White House refused to make it public because it opposed governmental efforts to control the emissions that most scientists believe is the major cause of global warming. This is the first time the document has been made public, even though its existence and the refusal of the Bush administration to release it were already known. An agency spokeswoman said that “conclusions reached then by EPA scientists should have been made public and should have been considered.” The Obama administration released a finding with nearly identical language in April.
It’s not the newspaper bailout old media has been hoping for, but a reminder that politics, media, and business are never far apart. Bloomberg LP, founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is buying the 80-year-old weekly newsmagazine BusinessWeek from McGraw-Hill. Bloomberg is reportedly paying as much as $5 million for the weekly, which McGraw-Hill put up for sale when advertising fell precipitously. The magazine industry has lost more than 20 percent of ad revenue in the first nine months of the year, but financial magazines fared far worse, with a 40 percent drop. Bloomberg, which offers financial information through hundreds of thousands of proprietary terminals in investment banks and financial firms, said the magazine would help the company better serve customers by reaching top decision-making business and government leaders who are not typically terminal customers. What Bloomberg will do with BusinessWeek remains unclear.
Michael Steele is playing down his organization's errors—again. The Republican National Committee launched GOP.com Tuesday with a series of embarrassing mistakes and numerous crashes. Among the problem spots: Administrators' passwords were temporarily published, a timeline of GOP accomplishments ended in 2004, and a section labeled "future leaders" was blank. Additionally, the site was down for most of the day. As the blogosphere began to ridicule the flailing site, RNC New Media Director Todd Herman pointed to "an enormous amount of traffic," while RNC Chairman Steele waxed poetic on "a whole new experience" that "has exploded off the blocks." He continued: "It's a good thing when you get another email saying 'It's down again,'" because it meant "a little thing called traffic" was flowing. Others noted that the headers looked "too much like the Chinese flag," but had positive feedback about the RNC's intentions. "There are no big conceptual problems here," said one new-media consultant.
"Birther queen" Orly Taitz must pay $20,000 for "wasting the judicial resources" with lawsuits alleging that President Barack Obama could not order members of the military to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan because he is not an American citizen and therefore an illegitimate president. In this judgment, Judge Clay Land offers some tough criticism of Taitz, writing, "The Court finds that counsel’s conduct was willful and not merely negligent. It demonstrates bad faith on her part. As an attorney, she is deemed to have known better… Her response to the Court’s show cause order is breathtaking in its arrogance and borders on delusional." The fine is due in 30 days.
Like Dick, like daughter: Liz Cheney says Obama’s shift from Bush’s security policies is a threat to the U.S. “It’s not about me or my future at all, except to the extent it’s about my future as an American, my future as a mom who cares deeply about the world my kids will inherit,” Liz Cheney said of her decision to launch a non-profit called Keep America Safe in response to what she refers to as Obama’s “radical” foreign policy. Keep America Safe—whose cofounders are Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and Debra Burlingame, the sister of one of the American Airlines pilots killed on 9/11—will address issues such as troop levels, missile defense, detainees and interrogation. The organization released an online video mocking Obama on Tuesday, and Bush administration memos supporting water boarding will be published on the group’s site.
Jonathan Lethem's new novel, Chronic City, is a step back from his 2003 work The Fortress of Solitude, according to Michiko Kakutani in a scorched-earth review of the book in The New York Times. Chronic City, she says, "is coy where Solitude was earnest, juvenile and mannered where Solitude was deeply felt." And that's certainly not the limit of the insults hurled at the book, in which a former rock critic and his bohemian friends smoke weed and offer not-quite-profound High Thoughts, and a former child star unconvincingly mourns an astronaut stuck in space. In this "tedious and overstuffed novel," Kakutani says, the details are merely uninteresting "whimsical embroiderings," the main character is "an irritating bore" who is "forever prattling on," the characters as a whole are an "annoying and tiresome lot," and worst of all, in the end "the reader simply doesn't care" about them.
January Jones' revelation that ex-boyfriend Ashton Kutcher told her to quit acting isn't the only element of the Mad Men actress' GQ feature turning heads. The svelte actress' surprisingly buxom bod has New York magazine blog Daily Intel's tongues wagging, too: "Her breasts, as depicted by GQ, immediately prompt the question of artificial enhancement by way of Photoshop." Daily Intel juxtaposes Jones' cover photo, which shows the actress wearing nothing but a leather jacket and red lipstick, with a red-carpet photo from the Emmys. Photos of her in risqué lingerie ensembles accompany a profile of the "damn un-Betty-Draper-like" Jones snacking on queso and dishing about her least supportive ex-boyfriend, Ashton Kutcher, who, having told her years ago to quit showbiz, "only has nice things to say now."
Who you calling unqualified? Three members of the five-member Nobel panel that award President Obama the 2009 Peace prize defended their choice to the Associated Press, saying they expected the surprise and criticism. "We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "He got the prize for what he has done." Jagland named Obama’s work to improve relations between the West and the Muslim world, and also decision to scale back the anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. "All these things have contributed to—I wouldn't say a safer world—but a world with less tension," Jagland said.
What must Anna Wintour think? In a move likely to raise more than a few eyebrows, the latest French Vogue features a 14-page shoot of white supermodel Lara Stone in blackface. The shoot was styled by Wintour's edgier French counterpart, Editor in Chief Carine Roitfeld. It's not the first blackface story to make news this week: Harry Connick Jr. recently made headlines for chastising a blackface Jackson 5 tribute on an Australian TV show.
Is the United States at a “critical juncture” in Afghanistan, as we hear so many pundits claim? “To be at a ‘critical juncture’ implies that one side or the other is poised to decisively gain the upper hand and therefore to win,” A.J. Rossmiller writes in The New Repbulic. “But the situation in Afghanistan is almost the exact opposite of that.” Neither U.S. forces nor the insurgency are about to defeat the other—and a troop “surge” of 40,000 isn’t likely to tip the balance. (Rossmiller uses General David Petraeus’ formula to estimate that the U.S. would need 568,000 troops to wage a successful counterinsurgency.) So what are our options? One is to maintain the status quo. The second is a political compromise. The key to the latter is to split the nationalists from the international terrorists. By giving the nationalists—including the Taliban—a voice in government, as we did in Iraq, a political compromise could be possible.
This ought to throw off one’s short game: The Secret Service is investigating a swastika found carved next to Obama’s name on a golf course in Lakeville, Massachusetts on Monday. Lakeville Country Club owner Gary Mosca said groundskeepers found the letter ”I,” followed by a swastika, and “Obama” chiseled next to the 18th hole in a layout similar to “I heart New York.” Mosca’s home is a few hundred yards from the 18th hole but he didn’t see who carved the 20 by 30-foot symbols, and the markings were made in an area without surveillance cameras. “They are going to do this stuff and cause a problem just to be anti-establishment or just to be tough guys. Their minds are probably demented enough to think of anything,” Mosca said, adding, “I love the president. I think he’s a great guy.”
After a court ruling today, life in the Gosselin house will soon be Kate Plus Plus $180,000. The judge gave Jon until October 26 to return half of the money he cleared from their joint bank account last week, and also ordered Kate to provide a list of past expenses. "As difficult as this has been for me, I am pleased that the court has ruled fairly on behalf of myself and my children," said Kate, adding that she hoped for the rest of the couple's arbitration to remain out of the public eye.
Perhaps watching the CEOs of the banks that caused the financial collapse walk free made former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling a bit hot under the collar? The Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it will entertain Skilling’s appeal to his 2006 fraud conviction stemming from Enron’s collapse. Skilling argued in his petition to the Supreme Court that he was convicted under an invalid legal theory that he committed fraud by depriving Enron of “honest services.” Skilling argues that the government never claimed that his actions were made by personal gain. Skilling also alleges he received an unfair trial in Houston, where the general populace was hostile. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison and forfeited $45 million.
Here’s hoping she fares better than Rosie: American Idol and four-time Grammy winner Carrie Underwood will be bringing holiday cheer to the masses this winter, with Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special, a two-hour variety special that will air Dec. 7 on Fox. The 26-year-old blond country crooner will share the stage with Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, and fellow Idol alum David Cook and perform holiday songs and music from her new album, Play On, due November 3.
President Obama has a Republican feather to wear in his cap: Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine has voted for the health-care bill before the Senate Finance Committee, which passed on Tuesday 14-9. Snowe was the only Republican to vote for the measure. “The majority has the votes,” she said. “It has the votes in the House, it has the votes in the Senate.” Snowe said that her vote for the committee’s bill does not mean she will vote for the final product when the entire Senate votes.
Should Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano be expecting an apology? On The Joy Behar Show Monday night, as the conversation between Behar and two gay guests, actors Bryan Bratt and columnist Dan Savage, turned to gay rights, Behar mentioned that she had been talking about the subject with Napolitano on ABC’s The View earlier in the day. After Savage mentioned that Napolitano has taken action on behalf of immigrant widows but not yet on gay rights, Behar shot back: “Now why would she do that? Isn’t she gay?” After a hiccup of silence, both Bratt and Savage replied, “I’ve never slept with her.” Behar, seemingly trying to salvage the moment, sad “You know what guys? Neither have I.” Napolitano is unmarried and has previously stated she is “not gay.”
Something for fans of Sarah Palin’s Runner’s World photo shoot to add to their collections: Five potential cover photographs for Palin’s upcoming memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, have made their way onto the Internet. The pictures, which first appeared briefly on photographer John Keatley’s Web site and were soon picked up by Gawker, feature Palin in a variety of poses. In one, the ex-governor and former Republican vice-presidential candidate smiles a toothy grin into the camera with her hands on her hips, flanked by two grass-covered mountains in the background. Another one features craning her neck for no apparent reason as she stands on the dock of an Alaskan lake.
After claiming Monday morning that he had co-written Michael Jackson’s new single “This Is It,” songwriter Paul Anka has been granted a 50 percent cut of the song, according to TMZ. Upon hearing the tune, Anka claimed that Jackson stole the original recordings from his studio back in the '80s and that his estate would be sued if they did not rectify the situation. The song, Anka told The New York Times, was written and recorded in 1980 in Anka’s Carmel, California, studio. After that date, Jackson took the tapes for himself. After he cried foul play on Monday, Anka received a phone call in the late afternoon from John McClain, a record executive and producer who serves as an executor to Jackson’s estate, telling him he’s been given co-authorship and a promise of “all due credit and royalties.” Now that it’s all said and done (read: he’ll get his dues), Anka called the incident simply an “honest mistake.”
Obama made good on his March promise to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan—and then, The Washington Post reports, he kept going. The White House quietly authorized at least 13,000 additional "support troops"—engineers, medical personnel, and intelligence experts, among others—which the Pentagon is deploying with little fanfare. While the deployment of combat troops has Washingtonians from Gen. McChrystal to Nancy Pelosi at each others' throats, the combined build-up of both combat and support troops has pushed the combined quantity of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to levels higher than the peak of George W. Bush's surge. Obama isn't the first to slide support troops under the table; when Bush announced the Iraq surge, he frequently discussed 20,000 combat troops without mentioning the 8,000 troops that accompanied them into war.
Heidi Klum—soon to be Heidi Samuel (she recently applied for Seal’s last name)—gave birth to Lou Sulola Samuel on October 9 at 7:46pm. The newborn girl is the fourth child to join the supermodel’s family. Seal announced that Klum was pregnant during a performance at Radio City Music Hall in April, and she’s been seen strutting the red carpet in maternity couture ever since. "[The news] came out faster than I wanted it to, … My husband kind of surprised me and everybody at one of his concerts,” said Klum. “From the moment she looked into both of our eyes, it was endless love at first sight,” said Seal on Monday. “She is beautiful beyond words and we are happy that she chose us to watch her grow over the coming years.”
Move over, Mickey: Steve Jobs is helping Disney to revamp its 340 existing stores in the U.S. and openi new ones (possibly including a Times Square flagship). Jobs let Disney into the shiny world of Apple, sharing proprietary information, and told them to “dream bigger.” Jobs pushed for a prototype and Disney listened, creating a full-scale model in a Canadian warehouse and developing Apple-esque retail details like mobile checkouts and community spaces. (Disney’s theaters will mirror Apple’s lecture spaces.) The Jobs’ retail makeover will focus on interactive technology aimed at making kids stay longer and parents buy more. Kids will be able to watch films and sing karaoke; satellites will allow children to speak to Disney stars; and if a Christmas movie is playing in the store, the scent of pine will infiltrate the room.
Russian natural gas company Gazprom is building a 750-mile, $11 billion pipeline along the bed of the Baltic Sea straight to Germany—and it’s heightening tension between Eastern and Western Europe. The new pipeline, which will completely bypass Eastern Europe, will make Western Europe self-sufficient, forever altering the distribution of energy production in Europe. Those opposed to the pipeline are worried about Russia’s new ability to act as a puppet master by cutting off gas to the east without having to worry about upsetting the west. Gazprom, which supplies Europe with 28 percent of its natural gas, says the new pipeline is simply in response to Europe’s need for more natural gas and will ultimately unify Europe.
Bernie Madoff may be in jail for earning fake profits, but it appears he’s committed to earning “cred” the real way: The New York Post is reporting Madoff, currently serving a 150-year sentence in North Carolina, was part of a “prison-yard tussle”—and that he was the winner. The fight with another senior-citizen inmate was over, of all things, the stock market. “The shouting match got so heated that the inmate pushed Madoff, who shoved back harder with both hands, causing his attacker to stumble,” the Post writes. “As the attacker tried to stand up straight, Madoff hovered over him red-faced and glaring.” After that, Madoff’s foil apparently “went chicken” and ran off. The next day, the two men made up.
Joe Lieberman, liberal hero? According to The Advocate, the White House is in talks with Lieberman about repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell—a policy Lieberman has opposed since it was first proposed in 1993. The White House is looking for a senator to “carry” the bill, preferably with bipartisan support. That makes Lieberman a prime target—he sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is friendly with the Republican senators from Maine, who might cosponsor the bill.
Bygones must be bygones on the presidential retirement circuit: Ex-presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are set to make their second joint appearance since Bush left office, as both men will speak at the TD Ameritrade Institutional 2010 National Conference in Orlando, Florida next year. The subject is the future of the financial-services industry, and the two will appear for an hour-long discussion. In their first joint appearance, Bush referred to Clinton as his “brother.”
More trouble may be on the horizon for Bank of America: BofA has agreed to waive attorney-client privilege and give New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo legal records that will help him determine whether top executives should have alerted shareholders to Merrill Lynch’s losses late last year, as BofA was getting ready to acquire the investment bank. Cuomo’s prosecutors also plan to investigate how then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s threat to fire top-level employees if BofA didn’t go forward with the deal might have affected BofA’s decision and the $3.62 billion in bonuses awarded by Merrill. BofA CEO Ken Lewis recently resigned and the investigation could influence in-house candidates for Lewis’ job.
9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed may finally stand trial. The New York Daily News is reporting that Mohammed and four other detainees at Guantánamo Bay may soon face the death penalty in a courthouse near Ground Zero. Apparently, Attorney General Eric Holder is mulling the move and will decide by November 16 whether the men should stand trial in New York. Should the Gitmo tribunals be scrapped, which the Daily News says is “highly probable,” then the Justice Department will move to swiftly indict the five men. Holder will instruct prosecutors—presumably from the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office—to seek the death penalty.
Olympia Snowe, the Republican senator from Maine, could soon be a pariah in her own party: Senate Republicans are preparing to punish her, should she vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s health-care bill on Tuesday. According to the Hill, Republicans are threatening to deny Snowe the senior GOP post on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which is about to become open and which she is in line to take over. “A vote for healthcare would be something that would weigh on our minds when it came time to vote,” said one Republican on the committee.
This was inevitable: Michael Jackson was nominated for five American Music Awards Tuesday, second only to young ingénue Taylor Swift, who picked up six. Along with Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Kings of Leon, the two will compete for best artist of the year at the awards show next month. The nominees are determined by radio airplay and record sales, and members of the public vote for the winners. His death four months ago sent his music sales soaring, and Jackson has sold 5.7 million albums in the U.S. this year so far. Number Ones, a greatest-hits CD first released six years ago, is the bestselling album of the year, with 1.9 million copies snatched up by mourning fans. Swift's 2008 release, Fearless, has sold 1.8 million. No matter who wins, one only hopes Kanye skips the festivities.
