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- Unsurprisingly, the Mike Pence-introduced House bill condemning the Iranian regime's response to protesters and expressing support for the people of Iran passed today on a 405-1 vote, with Ron Paul voting nay and two Democrats voting present. Changes to the wording of the original bill were made by Howard Berman (D-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee and reportedly the White House also had a hand in toning down the original bill.
- This past week has felt eerily like the dark days of 2002-03 when you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a neocon describing how the people of Iraq would greet us with flowers as the "liberators" of their country. Obviously, without a manufactured national security threat and a president gullible enough to trust his bellicose Cabinet, there's less of a case to make for a U.S.-led regime change in Iran. Yet neocons are feeling emboldened, taking to the op-ed pages of The Washington Post, giving us a Krauthammer/Wolfowitz twofer that makes you feel like you stepped into a time machine. Fortunately, Jacob Heilbrunn is available to take out the trash.
- House Democrats have released their health-care reform bill, a joint effort of the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means Committees. The bill includes a public option, lacking in both current Senate proposals, but does not specify total cost, even though some tax proposals are on the table to fund it. Meanwhile, RNC Chair Michael Steele is worried about a "national ID system" and "health police" tracking our every movement. I wonder if Steele has the same concerns about private companies logging phone and email records, installing surveillance cameras everywhere, and data mining us online for marketing purposes.
- This Reihan Salam piece arguing that Glenn Beck is nobly helping wingnuts vent their frustrations is not very convincing. In addition to being totally speculative (i.e. it proves nothing) it has trouble reconciling two claims: a) real fringe groups thing Beck is a "government stooge" and b) "Rather than stoke the fears of his audience, Beck's occasionally loopy warnings about socialist totalitarianism and the coming American civil war actually inoculate his viewers against truly extreme sentiments." So which is it? Real extremists don't watch him or they do and it's therapeutic for them?
- Remainders: The Senate passes the war supplemental; Google translates Farsi so you don't have to; the DNC outraises the RNC in May; Sen. Tom Coburn backs a birther bill; and the future of motivational speaking has arrived.
--Mori Dinauer
