ALJAZEERA AMERICA: Ukraine’s president announced Monday that government and Moscow-backed rebel forces have pulled back most of their heavy weapons in the east, but just a day later monitors said both sides were stalling on other terms of a cease-fire deal. Slow progress has been made in the arms-withdrawal process, a key measure agreed to […]
We won’t just rubber-stamp the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Workers deserve better
GUARDIAN: …Good trade agreements can only be negotiated in the open – which is why the constitution requires Congressional oversight. Article I, Section 8 of the US constitution grants Congress exclusive authority to determine the terms of US trade policy. But Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) – which the White House says it needs to complete […]
We won’t just rubber-stamp the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Workers deserve better
GUARDIAN: …Good trade agreements can only be negotiated in the open – which is why the constitution requires Congressional oversight. Article I, Section 8 of the US constitution grants Congress exclusive authority to determine the terms of US trade policy. But Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) – which the White House says it needs to complete […]
Capitolwire: Feds offer more PA-specific details about insurance exchange enrollments.
According to the DHHS data, 81 percent of state residents who qualified for a federal tax credit toward their insurance premiums could have gotten insurance coverage for less than $100 a month (with the credit included), but only 51 percent actually selected such a plan. Sixty-two percent could have gotten coverage for less than $50 per month, but only 23 percent did.
Come to Rome for the cathedrals, the ruins . . . and the red-light district?
EDITOR: The ‘streetwalker’ problem has been largely eliminated in the USA by Escort Services.
Joe Biden Shocked by GOP Letter to Iran. We too.
POLITICO: …With Republicans needing significant Democratic support to achieve their goal of derailing the talks — or at least altering the emerging deal — some senators said Cotton’s effort could backfire by injecting excessive partisanship into the debate over how best to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran… Vice President Joe Biden issued his own strongly worded […]
LETTER: Possibility of Escape
by Kathy Kelly March 9, 2015 That is also us, the possibility of us, if the wonderful accident of our birth had taken place elsewhere: you could be the refugee, I could be the torturer. To face that truth is also our burden. After all, each of us has been the bystander, the reasonable person […]
In a Test of Wills, Japanese Fighter Pilots Confront Chinese
NEW YORK TIMES: …With a quarter of a million uniformed personnel, Japan has slowly built up a military larger than that of other midlevel powers like France or Israel, though still far smaller than the 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army in China… Defense analysts and American commanders agree that Japan’s strongest asset is its Maritime […]
In a first, senators plan to introduce federal medical marijuana bill
WASHINGTON POST: …The bill, to be introduced by Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), would end the federal ban on medical marijuana. The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act would “allow patients, doctors and businesses in states that have already passed medical marijuana laws to participate in […]
Admiral Sestak condemns breach of U.S. foreign policy protocol by Senate Republicans
Senators have the absolute right to argue and disagree with the President’s approach to any issue. But for Sen. Toomey to sign a letter to a foreign leader urging that leader to ignore the institution of the American Presidency is inexcusable, embarrassing, and shows a lack of experience and understanding about America’s standing in the world, led first and foremost by the U.S. President.
LETTER: Republican senators incredible abuse of power
Amazing Republican intrusion into negotiations with Iran. I don’t recall senators ever doing anything like this. The alternative to a nuclear deal will be war with Iran. For Republicans to tell Iran that the deal will not last past Obama is incredible abuse of their office. All the presidential candidates in the senate have signed […]
Universities work to battle culture of drinking
THE TENNESSEAN: …Like clockwork at the start of every semester, [Sgt. John ] Pepper said, he and bar bouncers see an influx of fake identification. Years ago, Pepper realized a couple of hours in a drunk tank was not curbing the problem. Now, when he and his patrol officers arrest students from Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb, […]
A Different Sort of Bush: Policy Wonk Jeb Faces Campaign Image Test
NEWSMAX: In Republican Jeb Bush, Americans are seeing a different sort of Bush on their TV screens: a policy wonk who wears horn-rimmed glasses and has neither his brother’s famous Texas swagger nor his father’s patrician air. The more introverted nature of Jeb, who admits he would rather stay home with a book than go […]
Pa. Supreme Court to take up Kane’s challenge to special prosecutor
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Is Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane trying to put herself beyond the reach of the law? Or is it a special prosecutor who is operating in illegal territory? That’s the issue Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will take up Wednesday as it hears oral arguments in Kane’s challenge to the special prosecutor who wants her […]