The House Democratic Caucus today voted to reject the tax bill that President Obama and Republicans decided upon Monday. It’s a non-binding action and will probably have no effect on the end game, but as a matter of principle, Pelosi and friends wanted to show their displeasure. Noted. More congressional news: The DREAM Act passed the House and now heads to the Senate where it will most likely die. I just love the Senate. They’ve postponed the vote on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because … [Read more...]
The morning cup: Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Finally, finally, the Pentagon’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" report has been released! Guess what it says? Gays in the military? No big deal. Take that John McCain. Now what’s your excuse for not supporting its repeal? Go ahead, tell me. Obama is at a White House bipartisan meeting as we speak, discussing the Bush tax cuts. Coincidentally, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program ends today. If it’s not extended, the argument goes, it’s because it costs too much and leads to … [Read more...]
An afternoon cup: Monday, November 22, 2010
The debate over airline passenger screenings continues in full force. Do you or don’t you want to get zapped by the full body scan? Rather be felt up? I’d like to share some links with you so that, if you are traveling over Thanksgiving, you can take this all in stride by knowing that cooler heads will prevail, just probably not this week. First, Thomas McNamara’s Op-Ed piece in yesterday’s L.A. Times, “To find the needles, reduce the haystack”, illuminates the futility in believing we will … [Read more...]
The morning cup: Wednesday, 10/20/10
I don’t want to be snarky and all, but Virginia Thomas needs to rethink a few things. Extending an olive branch by asking for an apology is not extending an olive branch. She called Anita Hill (of pubic-hair-on-Coke-can fame, now a professor at Brandeis University) at her office earlier this month asking Hill to finally come clean about the lies she told about Clarence all those years ago. Problem is, Hill still stands by her accusations. Let Andy Borowitz at The New Yorker make sense of … [Read more...]
The morning cup: Tuesday, 10/19/10
Some mornings, I’m scrambling to find stuff you really need want to know. Let me rephrase that. Some mornings, there’s just not much I give a crap about. That said: Texas looked goooooood last night against the Yankees. They lead the ALCS two games to one. The Phillies are in San Francisco this afternoon. Some perspective on the true miracle of the Chilean miners: the remaining bodies of five Chinese miners from the blast October 16th were found today, bringing the total number of … [Read more...]
The morning cup: Wednesday, 10/13/10
The Chileans miners!! They’re free!! Well, not all of them, but sixteen so far. Here’s a description of the first twelve from AP and some video from YouTube and CBS. (Also, a live stream from UStreamLive). I was in front of the television last night, watching, and assumed the rocks that the second miner, Mario Sepulveda Espina, handed out were filled with gold as the San Jose mine where they’ve been hanging out for two months is a copper-gold mine. I have yet to have my assumptions … [Read more...]