Christmas greetings!!! Movie and Chinese food for dinner, anyone?
I'm dreaming of a White Christmas....
A Christmas snowstorm that blanketed part of the Midwest yesterday could force 500 flights to be canceled today and may turn to Boston next.
The storm was predicted to plunge south into Tennessee and Georgia today.
NY Times:
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who befriended President Obama’s parents when they were university students here, has been in office for less than three weeks. But he is so incensed over the "birthers" — conspiracy theorists who assert Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and challenge his right to be president — that he is already seeking ways to change Hawaiian law or regulation to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in a hospital here in 1961.
"It’s an insult to his mother and to his father, and I knew his mother and father — they were my friends, and I have an emotional interest in that," Gov. Abercrombie said in a telephone interview late Thursday night. "It’s an emotional insult, it is disrespectful to the president, it is disrespectful to the office."
Conor Williams:
Last week, Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Dan Burton (Ind.) and other Republicans worked to block the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S. 987). The act unanimously passed the Senate and appropriated no new funds, but the Republicans objected to it on fiscal grounds anyway. Since the bill would have used existing resources, voting it down saved the country no money.
Greg Dworkin (that's me):
In fact, Obama’s approval was at 49 yesterday in Gallup’s tracker, with Congress at 13. No wonder conservatives are upset that they’re not feeling the momentum. The public never wanted what they’re selling, they just wanted jobs. And those approval numbers and this fact are worth remembering as we move to next year’s battles: Barack Obama, and not Mitch McConnell or John Boehner, is the most popular politician in D.C.
Aaron Blake/The Fix:
Anyone who reads us -- as we assume that's everyone, right? -- knows that Republicans have a big advantage when it comes to redistricting, the decennial line-drawing process about to occur across the country.
After all, Republicans now control the redrawing of about four times as many congressional districts as Democrats do, and the U.S. Census on Tuesday moved six districts from blue states to red states due to population gains (and losses).
But is the GOP edge all it's cracked up to be? Will Republicans use this advantage to expand their soon-to-be House majority to untold new heights?
Probably not.
Edward Schumacher-Matos:
Some Republicans are crowing over the 2010 Census, but any red-state gains they make will depend on two big ifs: whether the party undergoes a virtual religious conversion and supports immigrants, or it gerrymanders like mad.
The Hill on a pardon for Billy the Kid:
[Gov. Bill] Richardson was coy when pressed by CNN’s John Roberts about which way he is leaning, but he relished the attention his decision was bringing to New Mexico, saying the publicity about Western legend benefited the state. "I'm going to string it out a little bit," Richardson said
