At one level it’s crazy and even a bit demeaning to call the on-going protests in Syria “silent”. There are large protests, a big death toll and you can easily find multiple reports on the on-going unrest and crackdown on various sites across the web. Somehow though, it’s just never quite come into focus, at least not in the US media.
Syria is a pivotal country in the region on many counts. The Assad regime has been in place for more than 40 years — so its downfall would be a huge story on multiple fronts. Even in purely US terms, only through the American prism, it’s pivotal to both Israel and to Iran and a lynchpin in the regional jockeying between the two powers. And both in terms of the threat to the regime and the level of firepower aimed at unarmed demonstrators, the protests seem at least on a par with anything else in the Muslim Middle East over the last several months. Read More
The nuptials between House Republicans and the firm of King & Spalding has seemingly fallen apart at the altar as K&S has withdrawn from its agreement to represent the House GOP in its efforts to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.
Progressive group launches major new ad campaign targeting Republicans for voting to phase out Medicare.
NASA celebrates Earth Day with the release of some truly amazing photos of our planet.
This is the one that really wows me.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has amended the congressional record to qualify his recent remark about Planned Parenthood which led to the mother of all spin from his flack: “His remark was not intended to be a factual statement.”
The original statement from Kyl: “If you want an abortion you go to Planned Parenthood and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”
After Kyl amended his remarks, the congressional record now reads: “If you want an abortion you go to Planned Parenthood and that is what Planned Parenthood does.”
Senate Ethics Committee announces it will continue with its investigation of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) despite his resignation.
CJR Online has followed up with an analysis of Politifact’s epic Medicare fail using all the he said/she said false equivalence and special pleading of the original. As I said in the first case, knowing how Medicare works, its history and how its replacement would work is really key to be being able to do this kind of analysis. And the establishment, disinterested mode of deprecating definitive statements and trying to split every difference is really a liability in these cases, not an advantage.
Now, the CJR piece makes a number of arguments, not just the one I’m going to excerpt. But it does give you a taste of the style of reasoning … Read More
Republicans just voted to end Medicare — so why no response in the townhall meetings members of Congress are holding in their districts this week?
Separately from the article I linked to, I’m very, very interested to hear your reports from townhall meetings in your district and how the Medicare issue is playing in your district. Write me directly. Send an email to the comments address at the upper right hand of the site and use the subject heading: “Attn Josh: Medicare Issue.”
If you remember Doug Kmiec from the Clinton impeachment days — a pro-impeachment conservative legal scholar who was on TV constantly — then you might have wondered how his latest gig as President Obama’s ambassador to Malta under Hillary Clinton could possibly end well. It hasn’t — but for what appears to be a variety of reasons. Kmiec talks to TPM in his first interview since Obama accepted his resignation.