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Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Morning Scoop - The Government Shutdown's True Extremists
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With government funding through September more or less resolved, lawmakers are gearing up for the next partisan battle: when to raise the debt ceiling. The maximum allowable U.S. debt is currently $14.294 trillion, a staggering figure that will nonetheless be reached within a few weeks. Treasury chief Tim Geithner has issued a stern warning against letting the debt ceiling lapse, saying it will wreak havoc on a fragile economy, and has already scheduled meetings with top legislators to win support for raising it—but many fear the government shutdown battle is only a small preview. Polls show many Americans blame Republicans for bringing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown. But The Daily Beast's Mark McKinnon counts down the number of Democrats that made the debate a debacle.
Once again, Muammar Gaddafi is on the brink of Benghazi: His fighters launched a surprise attack on Ajdabyia, the last city before the rebel capital. Rebels claim to have repelled the attack, but also to have lost eight soldiers. Rebels once again blamed NATO: "NATO has become our problem," said rebel leader Abdul Fattah Younis. However, NATO has been active in the west, destroying 15 of Gaddafi's tanks near Misrata. Still, rebels in that city say a recent assault by Gaddafi's troops killed 30 of their soldiers.
CEOs at 200 major companies received, on average, a $9.6 million paycheck last year—up 12 percent from 2009. That puts executive compensation at pre-recession levels, except in those cases where CEOs are actually making more than they were then. Best off was Viacom's Philippe P. Dauman, who made $84.5 million for nine months of work. New financial-regulation rules intended to restrain CEO pay appear not to have worked.
Japan will stop pumping radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants into the sea on Sunday. It will continue, however, pumping radioactive water from the nuclear reactors into tanks, and it may need to resume pumping into the sea should it encounter more problems with the reactors' cooling systems. Still, the move is hoped to quell worries in China and South Korea. One of the plant's operator's vice presidents said Sunday, "I would like to apologize from my heart over the worries and troubles we are causing for society."
Asked about Donald Trump's recent questioning of President Obama's citizenship, Sarah Palin said she appreciates him for "spend[ing] his resources getting to the bottom of something that so interests him and many Americans," adding "more power to him." She accused President Obama of spending $2 million to hide his birth certificate, though she said she "thinks" he was born in Hawaii. President Obama's birth certificate can be viewed at FactCheck.org.
With Libya locked in turmoil, Allan Dodds Frank talks to the former deputy CIA director who's been tracking Gaddafi for decades about the despot's next move, his similarities to Milosevic—and why he may end up in Venezuela.
Billionaire Divorcee's Happy Ending by Sandra McElwaine Patricia Kluge took her post-nuptial windfall and opened a world-class winery—until hard times hit and Donald Trump had to bail her out. She tells Sandra McElwaine about his plans for the estate.
The David Foster Wallace Generation by Seth Colter Walls On the posthumous publication of 'The Pale King', The Daily Beast gathered together 6 leading novelists to talk about David Foster Wallace's influence on them, his surprising humor, and his final work.
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