The public, stated reason for this is to show solidarity with federal workers who were furloughed due to the sequester. An alternate explanation: The President warned for weeks that the sequester would have a disastrous effect on the country, but its effects since hitting haven’t been acutely felt by the citizenry at large. These pledges by the president and his allies serve as a public reminder that yes, the sequester did have tangible, measurable effects—at least for the workers who’ve been furloughed—and thus retroactively lend credence to the president’s warnings. source
North Korea has said it plans to restart its main atomic complex, a move that could bolster its nuclear arsenal and add to tensions in the region.
The regime said on Tuesday that it would restart all facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to ease its electricity shortage and strengthen its nuclear capability.
The reactor was shut down in 2007 as part of international nuclear disarmament talks that have since stalled.
Looks like things aren’t exactly cooling off between North and South Korea, though the Guardian notes that the reactor in question only generates enough to plutonium to create one (possibly unusable) nuclear weapon per year.
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
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.
The Bow Tie Is Back: After a few years of serving as an occasional Fox News contributor, the network has revealed that Tucker Carlson and his trademark bow tie (not pictured) will be joining the Fox & Friends weekend line-up. Carlson is perhaps best known for his time on CNN’s Crossfire, for his time on MSNBC, and as founder of The Daily Caller. (Which has been in the news lately, BTW.) He’ll replace Dave Briggs, who left the show in February to co-host The Crossover with Beadle and Briggs for the NBC Sports Network. (Photo via Gage Skidmore)
Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the South because war could break out at “any moment”, it said on Wednesday, days of after warning the United States and South Korea of nuclear attack.
The move is the latest in a series of bellicose threats from North Korea in response to new U.N. sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test in February and to “hostile” military drills under way joining the United States and South Korea.
The North has already stopped responding to calls on the hotline to the U.S. military that supervises the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Red Cross line that has been used by the governments of both sides.
While officials in South Korea and the United States continue to downplay recent threats from the North Korean government, both have also repeatedly condemned the increasingly incendiary rhetoric, which follows the implementation of new U.N. sanctions against the North. The United States has also bolstered its missile defense systems in the region as an added precaution.
President Barack Obama has chosen veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the first woman to become director of the agency that protects the president, two officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
Pierson has been chief of staff at the Secret Service, which last year became embroiled in a scandal involving agents taking prostitutes to their hotel rooms in Colombia before Obama visited the country.
Pierson will replace former Secret Service Mark Sullivan, who retired last month after 30 years with the agency. Unlike many of President Obama’s recent appointments, Pierson will not need approval from the Senate, meaning she’ll actually get to start working sometime this decade. source
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple on Tuesday signed a measure giving the state the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, a bill banning the procedure in most cases once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks.
Dalrymple also said the constitutionality of the measure was an open question and said state lawmakers should appropriate money to a litigation fund for the state attorney general to defend against any possible challenges to the law.
“Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade,” Dalrymple said in a statement.
Considering many women don’t even receive confirmation that they’re pregnant until four to six weeks after conception, the decision essentially gives women roughly fourteen days (if they’re lucky) to decide whether or not they’d like to be a mother. Because forcing people to rush important decisions, like whether or not somebody wants to be a parent, is always a good idea, right?
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Johnson Confirms Retirement: According to The Hill, South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson will announce that he has no plans to seek reelection in 2014 on Tuesday, ending an 18-year career in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Johnson is the fifth Senate Democrat to announce retirement this year, leaving many to wonder if the Democratic Party will be able to maintain its majority after the midterm elections. (Photo via nnwo)
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) is currently investigating Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign, on suspicion of improper usage of campaign funds, according to a new report from The Daily Beast. While Rep. Bachmann is not believed to have personally committed any criminal actions, investigators are trying to ascertain whether or not Bachmann was aware of under-the-table payments to several advisers and, if so, when she became aware of the cash transfers. While OCE has no real enforcement powers of any kind, the board does make direct recommendations to the House Ethics Committee, though we don’t suspect the threat of censure (a.k.a a stern talking to from Congress) particularly frightens Rep. Bachmann. (Photo via Gage Skidmore) source
Put yourself in their shoes — look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents, every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their homes. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.President Barack Obama • Urging Israeli citizens to pressure their own government to work harder on attaining the two-state solution which so many world leaders claim to want to see. President Obama told the crowd that “as a politician” he could assure them that their leaders would never do what wasn’t demanded of them. According to the NY Times, President Obama’s remarks were met with raucous applause, despite the generally skeptic view many Israelis have of the President. source
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