L.A. Times - Politics

For a healthcare holdout, it's lonely in the middle

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln, who remains undecided on Senate legislation, is getting pummeled from the left and right.

As one of the few senators undecided on healthcare reform, Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln faces a huge headache. Liberals attack her as an obstructionist, even though she cast a key vote keeping the effort alive. Republicans are lining up to run against her -- seven, so far, and counting.

California budget's going to be dreadful

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:32:00 -0800

Until long-term structural issues are fixed, there is no way legislators can produce an honest spending plan so the state lives within its means.

The Capitol's budget oracle projects $20.7 billion in new red ink for the next 19 months. Here's my projection: More punting, "kicking the can down the alley" and numbers-rigging.

Pricing an Afghanistan troop buildup is no simple calculation

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The White House estimate is twice the Pentagon's. Some see politics at play.

As President Obama measures the potential burden of a new war strategy in Afghanistan, his administration is struggling to come up with even the most dispassionate of predictions: the actual price tag for the anticipated buildup of troops.

Reaction to Senate healthcare vote offers a preview of 2010 campaigns

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:21:00 -0800

Next year's congressional elections weigh heavily in partisan comments. Republicans say healthcare vote shows Democrats' devotion to big government; Democrats say the GOP is merely the 'party of no.'

With the Senate's 60-39 vote to proceed to debate, after Thanksgiving, on a healthcare bill that the president is seeking by year's end, the debate of the 2010 midterm elections has been joined.

Centrist senators say healthcare bill needs major changes

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson says he supported a procedural motion to begin debate but doesn't approve of the legislation as it stands. Democratic leaders face a tough fight ahead.

Only a day after Senate Democrats voted to move into a historic debate on overhauling the nation's healthcare system, key centrists made it clear Sunday that the party was still a long way from delivering on its promise to provide near-universal insurance coverage and contain medical costs.

Using the dark arts of land-use politics to defeat NIMBYs

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

It is a few years since Tesco, the British supermarket group, had a tricky encounter with a population of burrowing owls in California.

Senate healthcare vote clears the way for formal debate to begin

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democrats overcome a GOP filibuster with a 60-39 vote in a key procedural move on the $848-billion healthcare legislation. Debate is likely to run through the end of the year.

Without a vote to spare, Democrats pushed their healthcare legislation over its first obstacle on the Senate floor Saturday, as the chamber voted to begin formal debate on a sweeping measure to guarantee medical coverage for nearly all Americans.

Poor California: No money and no leadership

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Only one person who wants to be governor is talking about the budget, and few are listening.

In the new movie "2012," whose video trailers were bombarding television airwaves last week, the world as we know it gives way three years hence under a siege of floods, eruptions, undulating continents and earthquakes. In other words, it's not much different from what is happening in California, fiscally speaking, except that the state will be lucky to hang on that long.

After spending billions, state remains hampered by outmoded, unreliable computer systems

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

An embarrassing legacy of cost overruns, botched upgrades and failed networking projects has left California to rely on decades-old technology and jury-rigged software systems.

California may be known as the cradle of computer innovation, but several state agencies can't get their computers to perform essential functions despite hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns for repair and upgrade work.

Fox News rolls wrong video of Palin crowds

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Executives are reportedly considering 'serious disciplinary action' against someone in the control room. Also: a sour note on Obama's tweets; Huckabee defends Obama.

A few weeks ago, Fox News had the White House on the defensive. Network anchors were scoring political points by ridiculing President Obama for ignoring the largest news cable audience in television. Glenn Beck pounded green-jobs czar Van Jones, who eventually resigned.