It looks like Rep. Kirk (R) is a chronic offender when it comes to exaggerating his military record. Not just about that one award.
House Republicans are re-rolling out their Health Care Reform repeal bill which not only reopens the “donut hole”, un-insures 29 million people and adds almost $75 billion to the federal deficit.
People often forget that the blockade of Gaza is not maintained only by Israel but by Egypt too along the southern border. And I had seen that they were opening the border in response to the Flotilla incident. But TPM Reader KL just pointed out to me that an official told Reuters that the border was being opened for an “unlimited time.” Now, a lot can get lost in translation. And talk, especially talk not on the record and in the face of hostile domestic public opinion, is cheap. But a commonsense interpretation of that would be that the opening of the Gaza/Egypt border is permanent. Or at least of indefinite duration. If that’s the case, that’s a very big deal.
The public polls on President Obama’s handling of the Gulf Oil Spill are piling up. And they show building public unhappiness with the president.
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Separate from everything to do with what happened in the water off Gaza yesterday, the implications for Israel’s relationship with Turkey seem profound and perhaps irremediable. Allies can make up after almost any coming to blows if they want to. But that’s the key. This isn’t the first blow up in Israel-Turkey relations. Turkish opposition to the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead) has been at the center of the dispute going back to 2008. But even that doesn’t really fully explain the decline in relations. Read More
A Somali national, who has US residency, was arrested in Canada on Sunday on a Mexico-bound flight just before it took off. US intelligence believes he was trying to go to Mexico with the intention of participating in some sort of terrorist operation in the US Southwest. Read More
Check out TPM’s new interactive guide to the “Shadow Congress”, former members of Congress now plying the lobbying trade on Capitol Hill.
Robert Reich says Obama should take BP into temporary receivership.
TPM Reader JB on the role of the Turkish government …
The Gaza flotilla incident should be considered in the context of internal Turkish politics, in which the fears and resentments between the Islamist civilian government and the military and secular elite that had long held power appear to be much stronger than casual observers of the country are apt to think.