Two good pieces on what’s at stake in Chuck Hagel’s possible (non?) nomination to run the Pentagon. In short, Hagel would likely lean toward putting some pressure on Israel on the peace-making front (a good thing) and would likely resist a move to war with Iran (also a good thing). Washington neoconservatives don’t want either; ditto for AIPAC and the Israel lobby. And now it seems they’re going to win this one. Which is really unfortunate.
A couple pieces to read on this. One by Peter Beinart, another by Andrew Sullivan. I’ll be posting others.
It’s frosty with beautiful blue skies here in New York City. Hope it’s wonderful where you are and that you have a great day.
I don’t even know where to start with this new Post story about the ‘controversy’ and coup at FreedomWorks. When I first saw the claims about an ‘armed coup’ led by Dick Armey, I was thinking ‘okay that’s kind of a weird metaphor’. But it turns out it wasn’t a metaphor. He actually led an armed coup. And he may not even have been the bad guy. Read More
Frank Luntz says: “I don’t think the NRA is listening” to the America people. Watch.
Monday morning’s ambush on firefighters in Webster, N.Y. might be the worst — or at least most bizarre — violence to happen in the nation in the days following the Newtown, Conn. school massacre. Now come to find out the New York shooter used the same make and caliber of rifle as the gunman in Connecticut: a Bushmaster semi-automatic .223. We published the history of that rifle last week.
Check out some amazing photos from the year in deep space exploration.
For the life of me I do not understand this. The upshot of the ‘Plan B’ debacle is that John Boehner can’t even deliver Republican votes for his bill, let alone Republican votes for a compromise between Boehner and President Obama. So Boehner simply can’t get anything done. And thus now we have to look to the Senate to break the impasse. Read More
House GOP leaders say Senate has to act on fiscal cliff before they do.