It seems that that biology professor who gunned down three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville likely murdered her brother twenty-three years ago.
From Steve Clemons …
Several years ago, I met with the Deputy Director of the Policy Planning staff of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I asked him what he was working on — and what China’s grand strategy was.
His reply: “We are trying to figure out how to keep you Americans distracted in small Middle Eastern countries.”
Read the rest here.
Since we had a lot of discussion of it earlier today, I wanted to return to this issue of the Democrats and “up or down votes” — my comments and also TPM Reader JO‘s.
It’s certainly not that I think if Democrats started demanding “up or down votes” the Republicans would just suddenly capitulate. As TPM Reader JO notes, just as with Democrats before 2007, there’s a big constituency of Republicans who desperately want as much vote-blocking and obstructionism as possible. And those are the folks — core Republicans voters — that the GOP listens to. Read More
A very interesting article in the Times about how Goldman Sachs used questionable and rather opaque derivatives help the Greek government postpone but deepen its day of fiscal crisis.
TPM Reader JO keeps it real …
Your question about whether anyone had heard the phrase “up or down vote on a jobs bill” struck a chord. It’s not just the jobs bill. I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard a Democrat use the phrase “up or down vote” on any bill held up by Republicans in the Senate. This is a shame, since a demand for an “up or down vote” is a far better message than the self-defeating complaints about “Republican obstructionism” we keep hearing.
Take me for an example. I’m a fairly liberal Democrat, and during the Bush years, all I wanted from the Democrats in Congress was to obstruct George Bush’s agenda. Thus, with the shoe on the other foot, “obstruction” was exactly what I demanded from my party. I am sure that most Republicans are similarly pulling for their politicians to obstruct Obama’s agenda. “Obstruction”, in other words, is hardly a dirty word in American politics. It’s shorthand for “political hardball”.
That said, during the Roberts and Alito Supreme Court nominations, even I felt a twinge of sympathy for the “up or down vote” argument that Republicans pounded away with. Similarly, the phrase “elections have consequences” resonated, at least a little. After all, America re-elected George Bush, and the nominations of Roberts and Alito was a classic case of reaping what you sow. I might not have liked it, but fair is fair.
Have you heard anyone say “The Republicans won’t allow an up or down vote on a jobs bill.”
Anywhere?
(ed.note: In case you’re wondering, this is a real question, not just a rhetorical one.)
With the tide of public opinion moving against barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, state Senator and congressional candidate Gary Nodler (R-MO) has a new argument for keeping gays from serving: it’ll offend the people of the Muslim countries where our soldiers are serving and make them more likely to help the terrorists.
Dan Quayle: 51 vote majorities in the senate “not what our Founding Fathers had in mind.”
Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s New York residency was iffy enough before Gawker reported today that Ford hasn’t paid New York income taxes, preferring to file as a resident of Tennessee, which doesn’t tax wages.
Yesterday we told you about Gregory Girard, the Massachusetts technology consultant arrested by the ATF for stockpiling a big cache of weapons, explosives, military surplus paraphernalia and survivalist supplies as he awaited Obama’s imposition of martial law and “armeggedon.”
Turns out he was a big Palin supporter and a Tea Partier.