"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)
One of the ne-er-do-wells from the C Street Group House, former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) is under investigation for assaulting an opposing team's youth league soccer coach after what I suppose must have been a particularly intense game. In a nice extra touch, the unfortunate soccer coach was allegedly already wearing a neck brace when Pickering got all pro wrestling on him.
Pickering was last in the news after his wife accused him of adultery and sued him and his mistress for "alienation of affection" -- not unlike fellow C Streeters Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford.
Today, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) appeared at the Economist’s World in 2010 conference (attended by ThinkProgress), where he took exception to NBC’s David Gregory characterizing Republicans as “not really a party of ideas, because they don’t want to be.” Cantor claimed that it’s actually the media’s fault that no one hears about Republican ideas, because “it’s not as sexy of a story to cover our ideas right now.” But when the Economist’s Daniel Franklin gave Cantor an opportunity to present his big idea for job creation, Cantor couldn’t come through:
FRANKLIN: What is the big idea? “Jobs” is not an idea.
CANTOR: The big idea is to get, to get, to produce an environment where we can have job creation again. And see, that’s where the Obama administration’s agenda so clearly disadvantages the Democrats in this upcoming election in eleven months and advantages us.
Watch it:
If Cantor’s goal is “to produce an environment where we can have job creation again,” shouldn’t he have supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e the economic stimulus), which has boosted GDP growth and lending to small businesses, while cutting taxes for workers, thereby boosting demand? And shouldn’t he be supporting further efforts in Congress to craft a jobs bill that emphasizes infrastructure spending and lending to small businesses?
Later in the discussion, Cantor replied to a question about the U.S.’s role at the climate change conference in Copenhagen by saying, “I think from the larger sense the question of climate change comes down to, if there’s been any constant in human history it’s been climate change, and the real question is the severity of that and the involvement of humans in all of that.” Watch it:
Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart responded, “I wouldn’t have predicted last year that scientific doubters would still have this strong a voice.”
In the New Yorker, Sam Tanenhaus has a new review of the book “Sarah from Alaska,” written by two reporters who covered Palin during the 2008 campaign, in which he flags a passage about how Asian-Americans reportedly made Palin uncomfortable while she was in college:
She is equally circumspect on the issue of ethnicity, pointing out that Todd, whom she met in high school, is “part Yupik Eskimo” and opened her to the “social diversity” of Alaska. (Wasilla is more than eighty per cent white.) Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’”
In September, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) told Catholic leaders that he was “thinking about” a run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. “I hate to be calculating, but I see that 2012 is not just throwing somebody out to be eaten, but it’s a real opportunity for success,” he said. Today on ABC’s Top Line, Santorum appeared to be leaning more towards running. “Absolutely — absolutely taking a look,” he said, adding, “[W]e need to stand foursquare on the traditional values.” When asked if Sarah Palin — another potential GOP candidate — is qualified to be president, Santorum dodged and later took a veiled shot at the former Alaska governor:
SANTORUM: No, I’ll let the people decide that. I think, you know, she’s done a lot to draw attention to herself that’s positive. She’s done some things that, you know, certainly are going to cause her to have to do some explaining if she runs for president. But right now I think she’s on a roll, she’s having a good time, she’s having an impact.
Watch it:
Back in July, Santorum said Palin is one of his wife’s “biggest fans” but added that Palin’s resignation as Alaska governor “hurt women in politics.”
Nablus – Ma'an – Angry at their government over a slowdown in the expansion of West Bank settlements, Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian vehicles and buildings and uprooted more than 50 trees on Sunday.
Settlers set ablaze two warehouses, two cars, and a tractor belonging to Palestinian farmers in the northern West Bank village of Einabus near Nablus on Sunday morning.
Palestinian sources said firefighters from the Civil Defense service and Nablus municipal council were alerted at 2:30am and headed to the home of Nadir Mufdi to extinguish a fire in his barn, as well as a tractor and private car.
Separately, eyewitnesses told Ma'an that Israeli settlers set fire to a car owned by Fayiz Allan in the same area. No injuries were reported in either apparent arson.
Israeli Defense Ministry sources told Ma'an that while they could not confirm the attack was in retaliation for plans to temporarily freeze some settlement construction in the West Bank, a large contingent of military forces was in the area and operating under the assumption that the incident was "a revenge act.".......
