There’s a fascinating, short article just out from the Times on late changes made to the planning for the bin Laden raid intended to give the force enough firepower and numbers to fight its way out of Pakistan if police or the Pakistani military tried to interfere with the assault. In all the bleak scenarios the folks in that iconic photo must have been worried about, this must have been at the top of the list: a failed mission, a lot of dead SEALs and a confrontation with the Pakistani military maybe leading to the rest of the force being taken captive as POWs by our Pakistani allies.
The article suggests that it was President Obama’s prodding that lead to outfitting a substantially larger force that would have some hope of fighting its way back out of the country if it came to it. Read More
Speaker Boehner and House Republicans came out of the last two weeks with some serious stumbles on the Medicare front. It’s still unclear whether the Ryan Medicare Phase-Out Plan is even still on the table. And now we see the usual tack. Respond to internal weakness by radically increasing demands. No compromises, massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
I’m very curious to see the Democrats’ and the White House’s response. The available evidence suggests that the Republican position has little support outside the base of the Republican party.
Brian Beutler points out another tell in Speaker Boehner’s speech last night. He aggressively supports means-testing Medicare. That’s included in the Ryan Plan — even in the newly private insurance version of ‘Medicare’ Ryan endorses. But Boehner seems to be saying that regardless of whether you preserve the current system or not, benefits should be means-tested. Read More
New York man puts “Bomb Making Next Driveway” sign pointing to mosque next door to his home.
Facebook asks the FEC to exempt its ad system from key federal campaign finance regs.
After a streak of days as good as Donald Trump has had over the last two weeks, you might think he was all but elected president already — birth certificate flameout, WHCA thrashing, backlash from African-Americans and then the OBL raid. Alas, no. The Trump ‘campaign’ has officially imploded. The leader of the pack two weeks ago has dropped from first to fifth.
He’s now tied with Ron Paul.
Trump says he can now understand why Ross Perot decided to drop out of the presidential race in the middle of the campaign.
Minority Whip Hoyer (D-MD) opens the door on means-testing, says he wants to see details.
Given past history, I think we’re about ripe for the entry of a borderline unappealing retired politician to revolutionize the GOP field.
Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) says she won’t be relying on US intelligence officials alone in finding answers to what the Pakistani government may have known about bin Laden’s whereabouts. She’s tempering yesterday’s remarks questioning the entire US relationship with Pakistan. But she plans on holding her own closed-door, classified hearings into the matter.
“I’m not questioning the aid. It’s just if [bin Laden] lived there for five or six years, I don’t understand them not knowing,” she told TPM. “We all know what it’s like to live in a neighborhood — and that was a big compound in city that was also home to a military academy.”