CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: STATUS REPORT
Nov. 12th, 2010 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: A report by the Interior Department's inspector general concludes that the White House edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it falsely appear that scientists and experts supported the administration's six-month ban on new deep-water drilling.
ITEM: The DOJ says that CIA officials will not face criminal charges for the destruction of dozens of videotapes depicting the brutal interrogation of terrorism suspects.
A coincidence, surely.
ITEM: President Obama is prepared to keep Junior Bush’s tax cuts in place for the wealthy, according to Obama’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, who claims there’s no way to let the cuts for rich people expire without also letting letting them expire for the middle class.
Technically, of course, it’s hard to blame Obama for that last one, assuming the tax cut legislation really is that tangled. Still, he’s had two years to work on this.
I'm just saying.
Small change,
This is dF
The inspector general said the editing changes by the White House resulted "in the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer reviewed." But it hadn't been. Outside scientists were asked only to review new safety measures for offshore drilling.
ITEM: The DOJ says that CIA officials will not face criminal charges for the destruction of dozens of videotapes depicting the brutal interrogation of terrorism suspects.
Officials announced the decision on Tuesday because the five-year statute of limitations for filing criminal charges relating to the tapes’ destruction had expired.
A coincidence, surely.
ITEM: President Obama is prepared to keep Junior Bush’s tax cuts in place for the wealthy, according to Obama’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, who claims there’s no way to let the cuts for rich people expire without also letting letting them expire for the middle class.
All of the tax cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003, will expire at the end of this year unless Congress acts. The Republicans in effect "built in tax increases," Axelrod said. And separating out different categories of tax cuts now -- extending some without extending others -- is politically unrealistic and procedurally difficult, he added.
Technically, of course, it’s hard to blame Obama for that last one, assuming the tax cut legislation really is that tangled. Still, he’s had two years to work on this.
I'm just saying.
Small change,
This is dF
