US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1170

On July 15 2014 19:09 coverpunch wrote:
NYT report on Iraqi forces is not good


The report seems to be very pessimistic about Iraq's chances of doing it on its own, solely with American advisory assistance. But obviously the last thing the Obama administration wants is to have to explain why Americans are dying again in Iraq, especially when even the White House doesn't think it's worth it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will have some good news to tell Congress this week about the health of the labor market. But lawmakers will likely press her to provide more information on just how the central bank intends to react to the good news.

Yellen is scheduled to deliver the Fed's twice-a-year report to Congress on interest-rate policy and the economy. She testifies before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and will follow that with testimony Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee.

WASHINGTON -- The last likely opportunity for Congress to avoid completely draining the nation’s highway budget will present itself on Tuesday afternoon.

Though a Republican proposal to temporarily extend the Highway Trust Fund gained notable opposition Monday from two powerful conservative groups, leaders from both parties expressed optimism that the extension would pass.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill authored by Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) that would raise nearly $11 billion to extend highway funds roughly until May 2015.

The Obama administration and congressional Democrats have derided a short-term extension (preferring, instead, a multi-year plan), but their opposition has become more ceremonial with time. With a deadline fast approaching, the White House announced on Monday that it would support the Camp bill.

On July 15 2014 20:40 Leporello wrote:


Same thing people have been screaming about for years, since Bush started this futile mess. Iraqis don't identify themselves as Iraqi. They're Sunni first. Or they're Shiite first. And we keep hearing reports and stories about how these Iraqis don't really care to serve Iraq.

Well. No shit. That's always been and always will be the problem. Why does anyone think that this "Iraqi problem" needs to be solved? The solution is this country shouldn't exist.

I guess it makes us look bad to turn our backs and let Iraq fragment into sectarian territories amidst the violence. But, the more effort we put in at this point, the worse it's going to look, because it's going to happen either way. Every bit of premise of this war, from WMDs, to 'liberating' the Iraqi people, was all just so much insane BS. We can't rectify something that simply doesn't involve us. It's like building a home for a couple that divorced each other a hundred years ago and openly state they don't want to live together.

The best way to save face on Iraq is to admit, truly, that it was a mistake from the beginning. I don't know if our political culture can handle that, though. We've done a wonderful job of sweeping the whole WMD thing under the carpet in really quick time, largely due to partisan politics, where having the memory of a goldfish is so often convenient. We refuse to hold ourselves accountable, and that's a really bad problem for a world superpower to have -- we'd sooner go to war than admit to egregious wrongdoings.

The best, most peaceful resolution to Iraq's warfronts would be a UN-led global summit with the purpose of dividing the country along sectarian lines that all sides hopefully can agree to. Beyond that, it's a religious war -- and our constitution should forbid us from even taking part in religious civil-wars.

RINGWOOD, N.J. — The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a $44.8 million cleanup plan for three heavily contaminated sites once used by the Ford Motor Co. to dump hazardous waste that have been at the center of a long-running and controversial environmental fight in New Jersey and New York.

According to the EPA, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ford dumped millions of gallons of toxic paint sludge containing lead, arsenic, chromium and benzene in abandoned iron mines, landfills and forests surrounding its Mahwah assembly plant in the New Jersey borough of Ringwood, near the border with New York.

Under the final EPA plan, 22,000 tons of contaminated material will be removed from the mouth of Peter’s Mine Pit, and the Cannon and Peter’s Mine Pits will be capped. That means the hazardous material will not be completely excavated from the mine pits, which are several hundred feet deep and contain as much as 250,000 cubic yards of contamination, according to EPA Superfund director Walter Mugdan.

Capping is significantly cheaper than completely removing the material, but EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez insisted cost was only one of nine criteria the EPA considers when it proposes cleanup plans for Superfund sites, which are heavily contaminated areas designated for special cleanup efforts.

“When you are dealing with a risk, which is what we have to examine, it’s about both the toxicity of contaminants you are examining and the exposure of the contaminants to people. When you have these pits that have such a difficult exposure pathway, that’s a fact we have to consider when determining a remedy,” said Rodriguez.

But many local residents, including members of the Ramapough Lenape Indian tribe, have voiced concerns that capping and leaving the contamination underground could pose a threat to groundwater. The Wanaque Reservoir, which provides drinking water for more than 3.5 million people in northern New Jersey, is south of the dump sites.

On July 15 2014 18:19 oneofthem wrote:

if those incidents characterize the u.s.'s typical actions then no it would not be better. alas

WASHINGTON -- Backers of a critical highway trust fund bill set to get a vote in the House on Tuesday may have to worry about defections from Democrats.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that he would not support the bill put together by House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.). His objection is two-fold: He said the measure relies on accounting gimmicks to replenish the dwindling trust fund, and more significantly, lawmakers are abdicating responsibility by only replenishing the fund through next May.

"It is an embarrassing expression of congressional dysfunction that we can't come up with a long-term fix to the highway trust fund," Welch told The Huffington Post. "There is literally no justification for us not having, on the floor, the option of a long-term fix. The question to [House Speaker John] Boehner is: Will you do your job? ... You can write the bill you want, but it should meet the smell test of a long-term plan."

Welch's defection complicates the passage of a bill that already has its share of critics. On Monday, two top conservative groups -- Heritage Action for America and Club for Growth -- both came out in opposition to the measure, and said they would score the vote for members. Their complaints were that the bill relies on pension smoothing, which allows for a delay in payments that corporations make to their pension funds that result in a higher corporate tax bill.

Welch likewise criticized the inclusion of pension smoothing, arguing that it creates "a pothole in the pension system to fill a pothole in the highway." But unlike Club for Growth or Heritage Action, his preference is not to see the highway trust fund pared back to meet a more limited revenue stream, but rather to increase revenues to expand the fund. His willingness to vote no on the measure is not without personal, ideological risk.

"Congress it the enemy here," he explained. "It is within our reality to create a long-term plan. My vote is a protest."

WASHINGTON -- An enthusiastic band of activists has launched a campaign to slow the momentum of Hillary Clinton and convince Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that she should run for president in 2016.

"I think there's an opportunity for us to convince her if we're really able to make the case as to why we think she's the right person," said Erica Sagrans, who has signed on as the Ready For Warren campaign manager.

The group already has a Facebook page, Twitter account and a new website with a petition encouraging Warren to run.

Sagrans, who worked on President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, will be joined by political activist Billy Wimsatt, who previously founded the League of Young Voters and is going to be a senior adviser to the new group.

Reached for comment, Lacy Rose, Warren's press secretary, told HuffPost, "No, Senator Warren does not support this effort."

Even so, Ready for Warren will be bringing a van full of supporters to Netroots Nation, the annual gathering of progressive activists that is taking place in Detroit this week.

"We don't want to say too much about our exact plans, but we'll definitely be out in force and supporting Warren when she speaks on Friday," said Sagrans, adding, "We're planning on using Netroots as an opportunity to build on a lot of the momentum she's seen elsewhere and to show not only that she has progressive support -- because I think we know that -- but that there is an organized effort and people who are working on harnessing that support and building it into a real Draft Warren campaign."

On July 16 2014 04:47 oneofthem wrote:
representing the u.s. by some cold war actions of differing overzealousness is just being partisan. yea, some innocents and some violent leninists died, but in terms of lasting impact and affecting current world order, the u.s. is mostly a positive influence.

this is not to trivialize the u.s.'s bad actions of which there are many and not all are ancient history. nevertheless, it is still a redeemable situation

On July 16 2014 06:08 TheFish7 wrote:
I really don't think America is ready to elect a female president, whether she be a Warren or a Clinton.

On July 16 2014 06:12 xDaunt wrote:
Nah, there's no reason why a woman can't win the presidency. However, I strongly suspect that Clinton isn't going to be the first female president. I get the sense that another democrat will win the primary.

On July 16 2014 05:52 Livelovedie wrote:

I don't think you can characterize all of these people as violent leninists, in quite a few stances it was the violence guerilla capitalist terrorists the United States was supporting (Contras). Not to mention the US got rid of people who were very good presidents (Aristide in Haiti).

On July 16 2014 06:08 TheFish7 wrote:
I really don't think America is ready to elect a female president, whether she be a Warren or a Clinton.

On July 16 2014 06:19 Livelovedie wrote:

You really think Warren will win the primary? I would love that but its hard for me to imagine Clinton losing again or are you saying its gonna be down the road a ways?

WICHITA, Kan. — Moderate Republicans have been kicked around by the tea party for years in Congress and the states.

Here in Kansas, they’re fighting back.

A moderate GOP uprising is in full swing against Gov. Sam Brownback, the fierce fiscal and social conservative whose policies led to a purge of middle-of-the-road Republicans from the legislature early in his tenure.

In a rare and surprising act of political defiance on Tuesday, more than 100 Republicans, including current and former officeholders, endorsed Brownback’s opponent, statehouse Democratic leader Paul Davis. Polls show the challenger with a surprisingly strong shot at taking out Brownback in November.

Across conservative states in the Great Plains and the South, the last vestiges of Democratic power are at risk of being washed away in the fall elections by the tides of President Barack Obama’s unpopularity. In the Jayhawk State, where Obama was trounced twice and is reviled by conservatives despite his own Kansas roots, Democrats are looking to buck that trend: Davis is presenting himself as part of a proud tradition of centrists from both parties.

The race is shaping up as a contest between a pair candidates portraying one another as outside the mainstream. Davis says Brownback’s hard-right agenda has damaged the state economy and undermined the spirit of compromise that had long prevailed in the state Capitol. Brownback is casting Davis as an Obama supporter who’s too liberal for a reddening state. Moderate Republicans could tip the balance.

“Sam Brownback has not only not been able to work with Democrats, he hasn’t been able to work with a lot of the people in his own party,” Davis said in a recent interview during a campaign stop at a technical college in Wichita. “He essentially declared war with moderate Republicans during the last state Senate election. Many moderate Republicans saw that, and they are coming to support my campaign.”

One of those GOP moderates is Steve Morris. As the president of the Kansas state Senate when Brownback was sworn into office in 2011, Morris battled with Brownback and conservatives in the statehouse, including over a highly contentious tax reform legislation that has become a central issue in this year’s campaign. When Morris faced a conservative primary challenge in 2012, the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, Kansas Right to Life and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce spent big to help his opponent pull off an upset against the GOP leader.

In the interview, Morris said Brownback privately acknowledged responsibility for his political demise, suggesting he could have done more to stop the purge.

On July 16 2014 06:47 GreenHorizons wrote:


Definitely ready to elect a woman president.

Clinton has to be careful with the whole inevitability elephant. But you can pretty much guarantee there will be a woman on the Democratic ticket. Republicans won't be able to help themselves from making chauvinistic asshole comments and getting obliterated on women's issues. By the time the VP debate (where I suspect Warren would be) comes it will be all but a forgone conclusion that Republicans alienated way to many women and minorities to win even if they agreed with many of their policies.

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