Follow this link to the story that is posted on Politico.com.

How ironic, that in the post Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive, I wrote:

At least this administration is a little more subtle about it.  It doesn’t challenge anybody to “bring it on.”

In this case, it think it is about time for the President and the Democrats to take on a more forceful attitude.  They have learned the lesson that negotiating with Republicans at this stage of the proceedings only tends to weaken the bill.  It doesn’t bring any votes from the Republicans, and it doesn’t stop them from lying about what is in the bill.

All the serious ideas from the Republicans have probably already been raised.  Those with merit have been included.  The rest is just political gamesmanship.

I also like the idea that the administration has challenged the media to do their job It is time to stop pretending that one cannot tell who is being honest and who is saying one thing while being paid to do another.

Follow this link to the New York Times article published April 17, 2010.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.

Has warned some months ago, I might add, just in case you thought this was a recent story.

In other words, in a carefully leaked story, the administration let Iran know that it was fully prepared to take military action.

In an interview on Friday, General Jones declined to speak about the memorandum. But he said: “On Iran, we are doing what we said we were going to do. The fact that we don’t announce publicly our entire strategy for the world to see doesn’t mean we don’t have a strategy that anticipates the full range of contingencies — we do.”

We all know that this is the way strategy should be discussed.  You leave it vague enough that the enemy does not know what you are planning, but you make sure they know you are planning something.  At least this administration is a little more subtle about it.  It doesn’t challenge anybody to bring it on.

Follow this link to the Paul Krugman piece in the New York Times.

Krugman’s last sentence sums up the piece nicely:

So don’t be fooled. When Mitch McConnell denounces big bank bailouts, what he’s really trying to do is give the bankers everything they want.

As for whether or not we ought to just let banks fail, he says:

So it’s crucial to avoid disorderly bank collapses, just as it’s crucial to avoid out-of-control urban fires.

Follow this link to stand with the President on Wall Street reform.

I have just finished reading this book Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta.

I think it is a very worthwhile read to get you up to speed on how Google is affecting the media, advertising, and a raft of other everyday issues.

I was almost put off by the title of the book, but I am glad I didn’t let that stop me.

I have a few more words about the book on my Books page.

Follow this link to the column by Leonard Pitts Jr.

In it he quotes a colonel from the Confederate Army.

We went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I never heard of any other cause of quarrel than slavery. Men fight from sentiment. After the fight is over they invent some fanciful theory on which they imagine that they fought.’ – Confederate Col. John Mosby

I figured that this piece helps complete my previous post, Confederate History: An Exchange

Follow this link to the story at the McClatchy web site.

Are you surprised that the Republicans would come up with a strategy that stands the truth on its head?

McConnell had accused Dodd of drafting partisan legislation, even though the Banking Committee chairman has worked for roughly half a year with key Senate Republicans and incorporated many of their ideas into his bill. McConnell also said the bill continues controversial bank bailouts, but it doesn’t.

Follow this link to the CBS Nightly News report Earmarks: Who Brought Home the Bacon.

Not to be judgmental or anything, but this is the usual cheap shot, lazy journalism that one can expect from professional journalists.

I call it lazy journalism because the report is based on nothing more than the Pig Book released by Citizens Against Government Waste. In other words CBS is just repeating what someone else said without any fact checking by CBS.

Here is the comment I made on their web site about this story:

You should be more careful with the words you use in your reports.

whopping 9,100 pork barrel projects

How do you decide 9,100 projects is a whopping number? What would be an acceptable number?

How do you know that these projects are pork barrel?

Do you think that potato pest management and research might be of huge economic importance to a state with a large number of potato farmers? Why would you consider that pork barrel?

What is wrong with study mosquito trapping in Florida? It’s not like Florida doesn’t have any mosquito problems and that mosquitoes don’t cause disease and death.

Do you know what the scientific justification for catfish genome mapping is? If not, how do you know it is pork barrel.

You state that there is $16.5 billion in 2010 spent on these projects. You also state that Despite a deficit that’s pushing $1.5 trillion

These projects represent slightly more than 1% of the deficit. Was it worth spending the broadcast time and trying to incite your audience over 1% of the deficit, not even the budget, over projects that may or may not have significant merit?

Does anyone have a sense of proportion anymore? Are there responsible journalists anymore? Or is it it journalism’s duty to ridicule politicians because you have made them an easy target?

On April 12, 2010, there was a Senate vote on Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 4851 ).

Measure Number: H.R. 4851 (Continuing Extension Act of 2010 ) A bill to provide a temporary extension of certain programs, and for other purposes.

The certain programs included unemployment benefits.

YEAs 60
NAYs 34
Not Voting 6

The following Republicans (and other non-Democrats) voted for cloture thus allowing for a vote on the unemployment benefit extensions.

Brown (R-MA)
Collins (R-ME)
Snowe (R-ME)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Sanders (I-VT)

No voting Democrat voted against cloture.

The following six Senators did not vote:

Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Gregg (R-NH)
Harkin (D-IA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Rockefeller (D-WV)

Follow this link to an exchange between Marc Ambinder, the politics editor of The Atlantic, and one of his readers.

I have not been following the story about Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s celebration of southern history, except to notice the headlines.

No matter what your reaction to either side of this exchange, there might be something there that adds to your understanding of people. It might leave you with something to think about.

For completeness sake, I tracked down Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proclamation of Confederate History month.

I thought the following clause of the proclamation was a fairly decent bow to the reality of the Confederacy that somewhat mitigated the issuing of the proclamation.

WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders, and the study of this time period should reflect upon and learn from this painful part of our history; and

What I didn’t realize was that the clause was added last Wenesday after the governor received complaints about the proclamation.

See the AP story headlined by the Worcester T & G as Obama: Omission of slaves’ history ‘unacceptable’.