President-elect Barack Obama is considering a stimulus package that will include a heavy dose of spending on environmentally friendly projects aimed at creating “green-collar jobs” and saving energy. Read more about the “the economic imperative for clean energy.”
An independent, bipartisan congressionally-mandated task force has concluded that the “odds that terrorists will soon strike a major city with weapons of mass destruction are now better than even.” The report “singled out Pakistan as a grave concern because of its terrorist networks, history of instability and arsenal of several dozen nuclear warheads.”
The four undersecretaries of defense are expected to leave their posts, including Undersecretary for Policy Eric S. Edelman, who may be replaced by CSIS’s Michele Flournoy. Edelman, a Cheney protege, made headlines last year saying “premature” discussion of withdrawal from Iraq “reinforces enemy propaganda.”
The Bush administration will appear in court at 10 am PST today “to convince a federal judge to let stand a law granting retroactive legal immunity to the nation’s telecoms, which are accused of transmitting Americans’ private communications to the National Security Agency without warrants.”
Elizabeth Warren, the head of a Congressional oversight panel for the bailout, “says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis, despite the billions it has already spent in that effort.” According to Warren, the government seems “to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan.”
Last night, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) accepted an honorary degree from Harvard University. “I have often been called a liberal, and it usually was not meant to be a compliment,” he said. “But I remember what my brother said about liberalism shortly before he was elected president. “He said if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people…If that is what they mean by liberal, I am proud to be a liberal,” Kennedy said.
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has no plans to relinquish the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, despite a report last week that “helped retain a multimillion-dollar tax loophole for an oil drilling company at the same time that the company’s CEO” was pledging to donate to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. Rengel denies that there was any quid pro quo.
4,207: The number of U.S. troops who have died in Iraq as of yesterday. U.S. combat casualties in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month.
And finally: In an interview with Vanity Fair, Tina Fey talks about the discomfort of playing Sarah Palin in Palin’s presence. “I just didn’t want to have to do the impression at the same time with her,” she said. “One, it would shine a light on the inaccuracies of the impression, and, two, it’s just always … the only word I can think of is ‘sweaty.’ It just always feels sweaty.” Commenting on her impressions of Palin, Fey said, “I feel clean about it. All these jokes were fair hits.”
Sign up here to receive our daily e-newsletter, The Progress Report.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.