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Updated: 1 hour 45 min ago

Scenes from the Capitol in the final showdown over health care reform.

1 hour 28 min ago
12:32 p.m.—Barely a minute had passed after the final vote on health care reform before members of Congress started streaming out of the Capitol. Republicans mostly kept their heads down. But a few Democrats dallied—partly to gloat, partly to pre-empt the electoral doomsayers.

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Health care - United States - United States Capitol - Politics - Health Care Reform

Student loan reform's lessons for health care reform.

2 hours 7 min ago
The conservative meme about final passage of the health care reform bill is that it's Pearl Harbor all over again. Fred Barnes said it; Glenn Beck said it; Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said it. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had gotten House Democrats "all liquored up on sake and you know, they're making a suicide run here," which is just about saying it. The Pearl Harbor comparison breaks down when you consider that the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, killed more than 2,000 Americans, whereas the health care reform bill that just passed the House, 219-212, will likely save the lives of tens of thousands of Americans annually.

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Pearl Harbor - Glenn Beck - Fred Barnes - Lindsey Graham - Health care

Obama and Democrats gamble on health care.

2 hours 52 min ago
President Obama has just completed the most arduous act of community organizing of his career. Two hundred and nineteen of his neighbors down the street joined together in the House of Representatives to pass historic health care legislation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it happen, but Obama worked harder and more intensely than he has on any other issue of his presidency. He made 92 direct pitches to Democratic members of the House, according to a White House tally. Last week he gave three speeches, culminating in an appeal to fellow Democrats more personal and philosophical than any he's given since taking office.

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Barack Obama - Nancy Pelosi - Democratic - United States House of Representatives - United States

Slate's Whipometer: After 14 months, the Democrats pass their flagship legislation.

2 hours 52 min ago
After 14 months, the Democrats pass their flagship legislation.

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Slate - White House - Health care - United States - Politics

Can Congress punish the member who shouted "baby killer" at Bark Stupak?

2 hours 56 min ago
As anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak was speaking in support of health care legislation on the floor of the House of Representatives Sunday night, a Republican member reportedly shouted the phrase "baby killer." Talking Points Memo quotes pro-life Democrat Dale Kildee of Michigan as saying, "No one knows who it was but the person should be censured. This all started when someone yelled, 'You lie' at the president." After Rep. Joe Wilson's infamous interjection during the State of the Union address, Slate explained when and how the House can reprimand or punish member. The article is reprinted below.

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Bart Stupak - Michigan - Health care - Pro-life movement - Joe Wilson

Why did Bart Stupak hold out for a meaningless executive order?

March 21, 2010 - 10:56pm
Click here for a guide to following the health care reform story online.

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Bart Stupak - Health care - Executive order - Politics - United States

Bill Clinton stands in for President Obama at the Gridiron dinner.

March 21, 2010 - 9:30pm
The relationship between President Obama and former President Bill Clinton gained some amusing new contours last night. Clinton stood in for Obama at the Gridiron Club's annual dinner. He was in his best form, folksy, earnest and making a good amount of fun of himself—his vanity, his advanced age, and his legacy. Perhaps his best line came when he outlined the prospects for health care reform. "It may not happen in my lifetime, or Dick Cheney's, but hopefully by Easter," he said referring to their respective heart troubles.

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Bill Clinton - Barack Obama - Gridiron Club - Dick Cheney - Health care

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March 21, 2010 - 9:30pm

The Slatest: Weekend Edition

March 21, 2010 - 3:05pm
Democrats confident health reform will pass by slim margin tonight; Israel's Netanyahu to meet with Obama; "tea party" protesters shout slurs at lawmakers.

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Can I plant some vegetables in the vacant lot nearby?

March 21, 2010 - 11:36am
Spring is upon us, which means it's time for the green-thumbed to get out in their gardens and start digging. Fortunately, one person's talent for tending the earth can benefit a whole neighborhood. In an August 2009 My Goodness column, Sandy Stonesifer offered tips on how to start a community garden. The original article is reprinted below.

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Garden - Community Garden - Home - Vegetable - Community

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March 21, 2010 - 11:36am

Israel and liberal Jews are moving apart.

March 20, 2010 - 12:03pm
Right after it happened, Israel's ambassador to the United States described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "insult" to Vice President Joe Biden as the worst crisis to hit relations between the two countries in three decades. A week later, the blowup had largely blown over. Both sides realized what they usually realize when irritated with each other, which is that it serves the interests of neither to quarrel in public. Netanyahu, who is no fool, would be a big one if he antagonized his country's most powerful ally, especially while calling for a posse to hunt down Iran's nuclear program. President Obama, who was already unpopular in Israel, needs Jewish support to win re-election. All parties regret expressing their true feelings.

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Joe Biden - United States - Israel - Benjamin Netanyahu - Prime minister

Let's trade with Iran. After all, Iranians love to shop, and Americans love to sell.

March 20, 2010 - 12:00pm
A year ago, President Barack Obama issued a message to the people of Iran on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Since then, the United States' diplomatic options have dwindled dramatically. This Nowruz, there is only one way to shift gears: America needs to start selling cars to Iran.

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United States - Iran - Barack Obama - Nowruz - President

The author of the "torture memos" loves a good fight way more than a good debate.

March 19, 2010 - 11:46pm
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—John Yoo wants you to hate him. That's kind of his whole point. When he writes op-eds like this one—suggesting President Obama should thank him for enhancing executive power in wartime—what he really wants to do is make you grind your molars into powder. When he tells a room full of undergrads  today that for some prisoners locked up at Guantanamo Bay "it's the first time these people have had medical or dental care in their lives,"—perhaps so that they can have pretty teeth before you hurl them into a wall—he's doing it to be provoking. It's an old trick. Focus attention on the witch and the witch hunt, and away from the facts. Unfortunately for everyone, Yoo has been so terrific at making himself the witch in this hunt, he's made himself the issue. The same screaming masses he says are out to get him won't let him get a word in edgewise.

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Barack Obama - John Yoo - Tooth - Molar - Witch-hunt

Jesse James' alleged mistress is a "tattoo model." What does that mean?

March 19, 2010 - 10:03pm
Michelle McGee, the woman who allegedly had an affair with Sandra Bullock's husband, Jesse James, is identified in news stories as a "tattoo model." Is that a real profession?

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Jesse James - Sandra Bullock - Model - Michelle McGee - United States

Beware of corporate consulting firms offering awards for corporate ethics.

March 19, 2010 - 9:50pm
Sometime in the next week or so, something called the Ethisphere Institute is scheduled to announce this year's list of the "World's Most Ethical Companies." If past years are any indication, the winners will have their press releases ready to go, and news outlets across the country will eat it up. There's just one hitch: These ethics awards—let's call them the Ethies—may have ethics issues of their own.

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Business ethics - Ethics - Corporation - Business - Press release

Bidenisms: A collection of the vice president's gaffes and head-slappers.

March 19, 2010 - 8:12pm
The vice president celebrated his Irish heritage by producing a handful of Bidenisms on St. Patrick's Day. Please continue to send your nominations (with a link, please) to slatebidenisms@gmail.com. For more, and our stab at a definition, see "The Complete Bidenisms."

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Irish people - Saint Patrick - st. patricks day - Holidays - Gmail

What Warren Buffett's Geico ad says about him—and about American CEOs.

March 19, 2010 - 7:40pm
In a climate in which CEOs—especially really wealthy CEOs of financial firms—are generally unpopular, it might seem dicey to use one in an advertisement. Of course, there is a long tradition of bosses and founders appearing in pitches for their firms' products and services. And there are good reasons for doing so. It saves ad agencies the cost and effort of hiring actors. CEOs are more likely to approve high-concept ads if they themselves are in them. Most significant, the ads can work.

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Warren Buffett - Geico - Berkshire Hathaway - United States - Advertising

The Runaways reviewed.

March 19, 2010 - 7:25pm
The Runaways (Apparition), directed by Floria Sigismondi, draws its primary appeal from precisely the teen exploitation it decries. There's a certain tawdry B-movie satisfaction in watching the not-yet-legal child star Dakota Fanning—Satsuki's voice in My Neighbor Totoro! Fern in Charlotte's Web!—go down the tubes as Cherie Currie, the drugged-out and corset-clad lead singer of the '70s girl-punk band the Runaways. But the beats the movie hits are predictable enough that, after a rousing, raunchy opening act, the story of the group's fast rise and spectacular flameout begins to feel like an exceptionally dirty-mouthed after-school special.

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Runaways - Cherie Currie - Dakota Fanning - Floria Sigismondi - Musical ensemble

Scandal strikes the tomato-paste industry.

March 19, 2010 - 3:21pm
The feds had been investigating his tomato-processing company for more than four years, but Scott Salyer was apparently taken by surprise when the FBI nabbed him at JFK Airport last month. Salyer, who flies his own jet, had been traveling to Paraguay and Andorra, among other locales, looking for an extradition-safe home. He was visiting the United States to see his newborn grandson when the investigation closed in on him.

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United States - Federal Bureau of Investigation - John F. Kennedy International Airport - Paraguay - Andorra