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Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Morning Scoop - Budget Talks in Deadlock: Boehner's Moment of Truth
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With a late-night meeting between President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid producing nothing except vague assurances of "progress," it appears Washington is still headed for a government shutdown. Boehner's trying to deflect blame from Republicans by voting on Thursday on a one-week budget extension that would also slash $12 billion in spending, but it's a nonstarter that Obama and Reid have labeled a distraction. The Daily Beast's Matt Latimer on how the showdown is forcing Boehner to become his party's Houdini—and why he has no choice but to disappoint.
Libyan rebels gained some ground near Brega Thursday, but the consensus is growing that they are not prepared to wage war. "The rebel military, as it sometimes called, is not really a military at all," C.J. Chivers writes in The New York Times. "By almost all measures by which a military might be assessed, they are a hapless bunch." They lack communication equipment, have no officers, don't know how to use their weapons, panic easily, and "lack an understanding of the fundamentals of offensive and defensive combat," Chivers writes. As a solution, The Guardian says Britain is urging Arab countries to use their own militaries or pay private security companies to train the rebels to hold ground and use flanking maneuvers, which could take a month.
Wednesday's 90-minute meeting between President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid produced nothing except vague assurances of "progress": A sign that we're still headed for a government shutdown Friday. After the meeting, Boehner said there was no agreement on spending targets or policy, only a common desire to avoid a shutdown. Still, President Obama insisted there was time to make and pass a deal, demanding a "sense of urgency" in doing so. Boehner is trying to deflect blame from the Republicans by voting on Thursday on a one-week extension that would also slash $12 billion in spending—a nonstarter that Obama and Reid says is simply an attempt to create a distraction.
The first election in Wisconsin since the state passed anti-union legislation is bad news for Governor Scott Walker: Democrat JoAnne Kloppenburg has a tiny edge over Republican Supreme Court Justice David Prosser—just 204 votes, which means the race is likely headed for a recount. If Kloppenburg pulls of a victory—which she already declared—Democrats would hold a 4-3 advantage on the court if and when the anti-union law ends up before it. Prosser had seemed poised for easy reelection until Walker's battle against Senate Democrats over the legislation, which strips public workers of collective-bargaining rights.
Nearly a month after Japan's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, officials have finally begun searching for bodies in the area around the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Almost 1,000 police officers and soldiers began the search, wearing head-to-toe protective gear. 15,000 people are still missing in Japan, with about 4,200 missing in the evacuation zone. Currently, rescue workers are injecting reactors No. 1-3 with nitrogen to prevent explosions.
Beck's departure from Fox News marks the welcome removal of an incendiary talk-show host who reveled in apocalyptic shtick and the politics of incitement, writes John Avlon. Plus, the Fox-Beck divorce.
Wanted: Humanitarians at Home by Leslie H. Gelb The interventionists cheering Obama on in Libya are distracting the U.S. from vital concerns in the Mideast—and here in America.
Why We Adore Liz Hurley's Love Life by Tom Sykes When she split from Hugh Grant 11 years ago, she was dignity personified. Now, as she divorces her husband, Tom Sykes explains why we adore watching Hurley fall in and out of love.
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