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Drone issue puts strain on U.S.-Pakistan relationship - CNN.com
(CNN) -- One thing is certain: Missiles are regularly fired from the sky above Pakistan's tribal areas, sometimes killing what the United States and Pakistan describe as terrorists, sometimes hitting innocent civilians by mistake. But the rest of the details of America's drone campaign in Pakistan are concealed behind smoke and mirrors -- a series of claims and counter-accusations that reflect the controversy of what some call the largest campaign of extrajudicial executions in recent history. On Friday, hours after another drone strike, a senior Pakistani intelligence source added to the confusion over the status of this program by asserting that American personnel had left a key military facility in the country's south, known as Shamsi Air Base, where drones are said to land, refuel and take to the sky again. The statement -- disputed by U. S. officials -- does make one point clear: The relationship between Islamabad and Washington is severely strained.
Summary BOSTON — It has been nearly five years since Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney signed the state’s landmark health care law amid the political flourish of a fife and drum corps and 300 guests in Boston’s Faneuil Hall. The overhaul is largely seen as a blueprint for the sweeping federal legislation that followed, making the state a political target for critics of President Obama’s efforts. Brian Rosman, research director for the advocacy group Health Care for All, still has his ticket from Romney’s signing displayed in his downtown office. Obviously, Rosman’s group is pleased that the state has tried to cover as many of the uninsured as possible.
‘RomneyCare’ Facts and Falsehoods | FactCheck.org
California set to teach gay history and rights in schools - Telegraph
Children would take lessons on issues affecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, with schools granted discretion about what age to start the lessons. The law was passed by the state's senate and is likely to pass the assembly easily, which is also controlled by the Democrats, before being signed by Governor Jerry Brown. The legislation, sponsored by Democrat Mark Leno of San Francisco, passed on a 23-14 party line vote.
MEXICO CITY – The most fearsome weapons wielded by Mexico’s drug cartels enter the country from Central America, not the United States, according to U.S. diplomatic cables disseminated by WikiLeaks and published on Tuesday by La Jornada newspaper. Items such as grenades and rocket-launchers are stolen from Central American armies and smuggled into Mexico via neighboring Guatemala, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reported to Washington. The assertions appear in embassy cables written after three bilateral conferences on arms trafficking that took place between March 2009 and January 2010 in Cuernavaca, Mexico; Phoenix; and Tapachula, Mexico, respectively. The cables’ authors note that Mexican officials and politicians never hesitate to remind U.S. diplomats that Mexico’s drug war – which has claimed 35,000 lives in the last four years – is fueled by Americans’ demand for illegal drugs and by guns bought in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Latin American Herald Tribune - Mexican Cartels Get Heavy Weapons from Central America, U.S. Cables Say
Planned Parenthood Did One Abortion Every 95 Seconds—As Many in One Year as Live In Cincinnati | CNSnews.com
Planned Parenthood supporters at a rally in Philadelphia, Pa. (AP photo/Matt Rourke) (CNSNews.com) - Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions in the United States in 2009, according to a fact sheet the group published last month.
The human brain is wired all wrong. Those not versed in logic are blissfully unaware of how much our brain messes up the most basic of arguments, leading to the mess of random thoughts, non-sequiturs, cognitive dissonance, white lies, misinformation, and syntax errors that we call consciousness. Luckily, there is one place where all of these logical misteps can be exemplified: politics.
Top 10 Logical Fallacies in Politics - E. Magill - Open Salon
President Obama Finances Offshore Drilling in Brazil - WSJ.com
You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil . The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S.
Insurers gain big in health reform’s first year - MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — It was supposed to make insurance companies tow the line, but a year after the Affordable Care Act won contentious passage in Congress, the nation’s managed-care providers don’t seem to be suffering much. Shares of the six major insurance companies in the S&P 500 are up an average of 16% over the last year, which beats all other multiple-company sectors in health care. When included with the broader “health providers and services” group — which also includes drug distributors, diagnostic laboratories and one hospital company — the sector is up 12%, a close second to a handful of companies that make diagnostic tools. And individual insurers are among the biggest gainers over the last year, with Humana Inc. /quotes/zigman/229688 /quotes/nls/hum HUM +0.19% up more than 31%, good enough for the No. 2 spot overall among all 51 S&P health-care companies.
Taking Stock | Talking Points Memo
A TPM Reader and student of Japan takes a harsh look at US coverage of recent events … Accurate, unbiased information is crucial in these crises. I was in Chiba when the first explosion at reactor number 1 took place and the lack of information from TEPCO and the government in the first few hours led to speculation that made all of us in Japan fear for our lives. But information was soon forthcoming that allowed me and all Japanese to more rationally evaluate the situation. There were―and are—still problems with getting information in Japan, but even the Prime Minister has publicly criticized TEPCO for keeping information secret and the Japanese media―as one can tell from the sometimes painfully long press conferences at TEPCO and elsewhere―are largely doing their job and asking the right questions. The national network, NHK, has repeatedly urged the continuous release of certain kinds of information.(CNN) - A series of hot-button immigration bills in Arizona that in part proposed stripping citizenship rights of children of illegal immigrants went down in defeat Thursday, averting for now a legal showdown that would likely have reached the Supreme Court. A divided state Senate voted against a string of proposals that aimed to deny citizenship rights to children of illegal immigrants born in the United States, prevent illegal immigrants from acquiring drivers' licenses, and require schools and hospitals to check the legal status of students and patients before offering services. Specific portions of the measures – including a ban on citizenship and access to schools for children of illegal immigrants - appear to expressly conflict with previous Supreme Court rulings and were drafted in hopes the high court would reconsider its decades-old holdings in that area of law.
Arizona Senate defeats controversial birthright measures – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs
Washington (CNN) - The Senate easily passed a spending bill Thursday to keep the government funded for three more weeks as lawmakers and the White House work to bridge their deep divide on a larger spending package that will run through September 30, the end of the fiscal year. The vote was 87 to 13. Four Democrats and nine Republicans voted against it. The House already passed the stopgap bill, which - at the insistence of Republicans - cuts $6 billion from current funding levels. Now it will go to President Barack Obama to be signed into law. With support waning for additional short-term spending bills, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle vowed to make this the last temporary measure before striking agreement on a longer-term bill.