Military flights rushed Monday to restock an Australian city before it was cut off by floodwaters that have turned a huge swath of the Outback into a lake. The floods now take up the size of France and Germany combined. (Jan. 3)
Continue reading …Click here to view this media During the panel discussion on This Week, George Will calls Republican opposition to raising the debt limit “suicidal” and Amy Walter gives us some insight into just what game Lindsey Graham is probably playing. TAPPER: Speaking of — of the tension between Speaker Boehner and the Tea Party Republicans coming in, I want to read you this quote from an interview Boehner gave to the New Yorker magazine. He was referring to the vote to raise the ceiling on the debt limit, which is currently $14.3 trillion. Boehner says, “This is going to be probably the first really big adult moment for the new Republican majority. You can underline adult. And for people who’ve never been in politics, it’s going to be one of those growing moments. It’s going to be difficult. I’m certainly well aware of that. But we’ll have to find a way to help educate members and help people understand the serious problem that would exist if we didn’t do it.” Speaker Boehner suggesting that if you do not vote to raise the debt ceiling, you are not being an adult. George? WILL: I know of no other developed nation that has a debt ceiling. This is a purely recurring symbolic vote to make people feel good by voting against it. The trouble is, it’s suicidal if you should happen to miscalculate and have all kinds of people voting against it as a symbolic vote and turn out to be a majority, because if the United States defaults on its sovereign debt, the markets — well, it will be stimulating. TAPPER: Well, you heard — and you heard Austan Goolsbee earlier today talk about — the word “insanity” was what he used to describe it. GARRETT: Let me give a sense of the anxiety that John Boehner, the Republican leadership in the House feels about this. At orientation conferences with incoming house Republicans, both at Harvard and at Heritage Foundation, this topic came up again and again and again. No matter what the policy conversation was, they wanted to know, why do we have to increase the debt ceiling? What are the economic consequences? There was deep-seated, A, curiosity and skepticism about the need to do this. So internally House Republicans are going to have to sit down and — and conduct what will amount to speed education courses on this matter. Now, two other significant things. This will be a clean vote, a visible vote that will be separate from everything else. You can’t tuck it into another legislative maneuver, as Democrats did under the Gephardt rule. Secondly, what you will also see is the House Republican Appropriations Committee will move spending cuts through alongside these, so those who have to vote for the debt ceiling will say, “I’ve raided the debt ceiling, but I’ve also voted to cut spending.” You’ll see that happen much more rapidly because of the pressure applied politically on this debt ceiling vote. TAPPER: Amy, last word on the debt ceiling? WALTER: No, I think that Major is right. This is going to be a very interesting test, sort of a game of chicken. And I think there are a lot of Republicans out there right now hoping that they can take a symbolic vote because somebody else is going to be the adult and do that. And you may see it based on when you’re up for re-election — the House obviously every two years, but in the Senate, you know, who is most worried about a Tea Party challenge, maybe the folks that can take a pass on that.
Continue reading …At some point, every day, it’s time to wake up. If you’re lucky you roll out of bed whenever the spirit moves you. For the rest of us there’s some sort of prompting involved. At some point you’ve probably felt the rage of being awoken early by someone else’s alarm, a problem that the Analarm watch nullifies. It’s a simple concept: a vibrating watch with an alarm. Set your time and it buzzes to let you know when to get up, a feature we sorely wished the WakeMate had. Seemingly that’s all the thing does, other than tell time of course, which makes its
Continue reading …Snow and ice closed the main highway between Southern and Central California, stranding many motorists overnight. A storm brought chilly weather and treacherous roads. The California Highway Patrol shut the Grapevine area of Interstate 5. (Jan. 3)
Continue reading …Petach Tikva man suspected of leading violent racist group arrested at airport after fleeing Israel in 2007
Continue reading …Photos credit Alex de Rijke at Drmm How did I miss this one? It pushes every button. British architecture firm drmm designed the Naked House for an exhibition in Norway in 2006; it is delivered (and is built on top of) a shipping container, filled to the brim with flatpack panels made from my materiel-du-jour, cross-laminated timber or CLT. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …In his report on the escalating dispute between the State of Texas and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one thing you cannot accuse Ramit Plushnick-Masti of the Associated Press of being is a master of understatement. He claims that “Both sides and conservation groups agree the battle has put the health of Texas residents and the environment at risk.” Really? The only problem is that the AP reporter never found anyone who is currently on the Texas side of the dispute who is saying anything remotely resembling that. Here are the opening paragraphs of Plushnick-Masti's prose , followed by a much later paragraph representing the closest the writer gets to naming someone on the Texas side to worry about the alleged “risk” (bold is mine): read more
Continue reading …‘Little Fockers’ remains the top movie at the box office for the New Year’s holiday. (Jan. 3)
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