NY Times:
Most Republican lawmakers claim they are pro-trade. Their principled position is evidently no match for parochialism and politics.
Of course, you could substitute pretty much any political issue for "pro-trade" and you'd still come to the same conclusion.
LA Times:
Homophobia is rampant in many African countries. In Uganda, homosexuality is illegal, although people are rarely prosecuted for being gay. The country has practiced a kind of harsh version of "don't ask, don't tell, don't be seen." The anti-homosexuality bill, which was introduced nearly two years ago, would make people who committed "aggravated homosexuality" (defined as having same-sex relations if one is HIV positive or with someone under the age of 18, or being "a serial offender") subject to the death penalty.
...
Uganda is not alone in its attitudes toward gay rights, but for the moment, the spotlight is on it. The country should reject this appalling bill immediately and decriminalize homosexuality. The United States gave Uganda $526 million in aid in fiscal year 2010. More than half of that goes to programs to combat AIDS and HIV, and the State Department is reluctant to pull that as leverage. But if the bill passes, that should be reconsidered. Maybe it would persuade Uganda's lawmakers to move into the 21st century.
Carol Felsenthal sums up the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act:
"Forcible rape" sounds like a bad, sad joke, and certainly an example of idiotic redundancy. The idea that such a phrase could even be written and made public, preliminary or not, reveals the mindset, at the moment, of the anti-abortion forces.
Mark Morford offers a different, equally accurate, take:
Did you hear how the Republicans are currently seeking to enflame their most fearful, ignorant base by way of igniting the abortion fight all over again? Yep.
How will they do it? By attempting to redefine rape, of course, so as to make it seem less, you know, rape-y.
The GOP would hereby like to inform all women and especially younger girls that, unless physical force was involved, it wasn't actually rape. Therefore, if you got knocked up, the Repubs ain't paying for no slutty abortion, y'hear? Drugged, incest, statutory? Too terrified to struggle? Too bad for you, kiddo. The Republican Party hates you, and your terrifying vagina.
Gail Collins looks for the right person to blame for the snowpocalypse:
Ideally, we would like to blame one specific person — like the evil queen in the movie "Red Sonja" who used a magic orb to destroy entire civilizations with terrible storms until she was vanquished by Red Sonja and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that was a long time ago when Schwarzenegger was still saying things like, "If you yield only to a conqueror, then prepare to be conquered, Little Sonja." Now, he is more likely to say, "Let’s fix the pension problem," and California has been having terrible weather.
Nevertheless, I don’t think we can pin this on Arnold.
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Remind me again why we aren’t fighting global warming? It’s win-win. Even if all the hordes of scientists are wrong in believing that human beings are causing climate change, the remedies would still be good for the environment and for energy independence.
Nicholas Kristof:
It should be increasingly evident that Mr. Mubarak is not the remedy for the instability in Egypt; he is its cause. The road to stability in Egypt requires Mr. Mubarak’s departure, immediately.
But for me, when I remember this sickening and bloody day, I’ll conjure not only the brutality that Mr. Mubarak seems to have sponsored but also the courage and grace of those Egyptians who risked their lives as they sought to reclaim their country. And incredibly, the democracy protesters held their ground all day at Tahrir Square despite this armed onslaught. Above all, I’ll be inspired by those two sisters standing up to Mr. Mubarak’s hoodlums. If they, armed only with their principles, can stand up to Mr. Mubarak’s thuggery, can’t we all do the same?
Doyle McManus:
Could the United States have prevented Mubarak's fall? Only if it had persuaded him to launch reforms years ago — and every president since Ronald Reagan (whose ambassador in Cairo pushed for naming a vice president) failed at that pursuit.
Those who argue that Obama should have stood athwart the tide of Egyptian history and shouted "stop" might consider how difficult it has been for the United States to shape the futures of Lebanon, Iraq or Afghanistan.
So it's fitting that the Obama administration is spending so much time being modest about its power to determine Egypt's future. It may be a useful argument, in that it shields the United States from bearing full responsibility for the outcome. But as Henry A. Kissinger used to say, it has the added advantage of being true.
George Will thinks Rick Santorum is a serious contender for the GOP presidential nomination.
Matt Miller fantasizes about October 26, 2017, when President Hillary Clinton signs universal health care into law after the Supreme Court overturns Obama's health care reform in 2012. Anyone else want what he's smoking?