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Tagged: Politics

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April 11, 2013
13:51 • 1 month ago
We’re in deep doo-doo.
Dick Cheney, in a closed-door meeting with congressional Republicans, on the situation in North Korea. Cheney may be right, but his credibility is undermined both by his own record of assessing foreign threats and, perhaps more significantly, the fact that he used the word “doo-doo” to describe the prospect of nuclear war. He gets points, however, for reportedly wearing a cowboy hat to the meeting. source
April 10, 2013
16:24 • 1 month ago

  • 40k-50k civilian jobs would be shed by the Pentagon over the next five years, as the Department of Defense moves forward with plans to close several bases and healthcare facilities across the country. source The cuts represent roughly 5% of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian workforce. source

14:40 • 1 month ago
April 9, 2013
16:21 • 1 month ago
North Korea’s statement advising foreigners to make plans to evacuate Seoul is more unhelpful rhetoric that serves only to escalate tensions. This kind of rhetoric will only further isolate North Korea from the international community, and we continue to urge the North Korean leadership to heed President Obama’s call to choose the path of peace and to come into compliance with its international obligations.
White House spokesman Jay Carney • Responding to North Korea’s rather surprising anti-tourism warning on Tuesday, mere hours after North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency warned foreigners in South Korea that the country’s military couldn’t be blamed if they were hurt should war break out on the Korean peninsula. The latest threats from North Korea come on the eve of previously announced ballistic missile testing which has already put a number of countries in the region on edge. source
April 8, 2013
16:57 • 1 month ago
15:36 • 1 month ago

  • 1.7M new U.S. diplomatic records have been released by WikiLeaks. All of the records are from a four year period stretching from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, and include numerous entries both from and intended for former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The collection is being called the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD). source

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April 4, 2013
20:47 • 1 month ago
April 3, 2013
22:42 • 1 month ago
In the present situation, China believes all sides must remain calm and exercise restraint and not take actions which are mutually provocative, and must certainly not take actions which will worsen the situation.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei • Responding to the news that North Korea has barred South Korean workers from entering the jointly-run Kaesong Industrial Region six miles north of the infamous Demilitarized Zone which separates the North and South. While North Korea has apparently decided to deny South Koreans’ access to the complex, those already inside of Kaesong are reportedly not being threatened or held against their will. source
18:05 • 1 month ago
17:22 • 1 month ago
Recent posts and stuff we dig:
13:44 • 1 month ago
April 1, 2013
15:39 • 1 month ago

  • 480 White House staffers will be required to take unpaid days off as a result of the sequestration which took effect on March 1, according to White House press secretary Jay Carney. White House officials have also apparently scaled back staff travel expenses, delayed filling open positions, and stopped using mobile Internet cards. source

March 29, 2013
18:27 • 1 month ago
  • one Alaska Rep. Don Young, who landed himself in hot water yesterday for casually referring to the “wetbacks” his family used to employ. He’s since apologized—twice—calling it a “poor choice of words.”
  • two North Carolina Governor Pat McCroy, who today, without warning or explanation, closed the state’s Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs, prompting an angry response from the local Latin American Coalition.
  • three Todd Kincannon, former executive director of the South Carolina GOP, who earlier this week told veteran Mike Prysner—now an anti-war activist—that he “should have come home in a body bag” and expressed his hopes that “the enemy splatters his brain JFK-style.”

To the national party’s credit, Young’s remarks were roundly denounced by Republican leaders, and Kincannon has basically been disowned by the state GOP. But every story like this reaffirms the exact stereotypes the party is working so hard to combat right now, and until the party can get its members under control, even a superficial rebranding is likely to be unsuccessful. The larger issue, though, is whether the Republicans’ electoral base actually wants it to change. The early evidence isn’t very promising. source

00:04 • 1 month ago
Yes, tried to kill me. I’m an open book. They won’t let me testify at the Grant Sawyer Building, and they sent 100 police officers to arrest me. Let me ask you, how can they do that?
Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks • Discussing the decision by the assembly to expel the politician from his seat, because he’s been acting erratically. (Nobody’s trying to kill him, and no police officers have shown up to arrest him.) Brooks, who once did a mostly-shirtless 35 minute interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has made threatening comments towards his colleagues, most notably Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, and has been arrested multiple times in recent months. (Some who voted to expel him said they felt unsafe with him in the legislative building.) The Democrat, who often called press conferences he never showed up for, is the first politician in Nevada to face an expulsion vote from the legislature in 146 years.

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