"And frankly I don’t think a Speaker would have dared try to treat a white president that way." If this was 16 years ago, I have no doubt Boehner would have done this while Clinton was president.
You certainly need a 9-dimensional roadmap to follow it. I think it's something like - Turkey hates and opposes the Kurds. Turkey also is occasionally attacked by ISIL, whom they oppose as well. If Kobane falls it'll be bad for Turkey, so even though it'll help the Kurds, Turkey wants Kobane not to fall. Turkey doesn't want to help directly, but they'll let someone else help.
Or perhaps that's not right at all. My head hurts.
The end of national sovereignty didn't begin with the Kurds. ISIL has been operating with no regard for sovereign borders for some time. (And I seem to remember an invasion in 2003 which had little regard for Iraqi sovereignty.)
"the major country of Iraq, which the US surely had under intensive surveillance"
I wonder if that is really true.
I also wonder if ISIL uses the internet. It seems to me that NSA is getting fat and sloppy if they're JUST concentrating on surveillance of the internet and not checking other signals intelligence.
Just a week ago, John Whitbeck was calling for UN peacekeepers in Gaza. (link to juancole.com) Should this incident in the Golan cause him to change his mind about the UN's effectiveness?
In answer to your title question, no. (When is the last time anything important and lasting has achieved 2/3 agreement of both the House and Senate?)
A better question might be - if a vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court before 2017, can Obama get his nominee confirmed?
Even though I am a firm believer in the right of the State of Israel to exist, I have always thought the claim "no Palestine" to be silly. I have Jewish friends born in Jerusalem before 1948 whose birth certificates state they were born in Palestine.
I still wonder what was said at that secretive meeting Cheney held with oil execs in the summer of 2001. At that time, oil prices were quite low, and the oil for food program with Saddam was benefiting mostly Russian and French companies.
The invasion of Iraq changed all that. The instability made crude oil prices double, and American companies benefited once Iraq started selling oil again.
Israel did NOT annex the West Bank and Gaza, only areas of East Jerusalem and the Golan. That, I think, makes it "worse" than Russia's annexation of Crimea. Russia will presumably extend citizenship rights to Crimeans, as Israel did with the inhabitants of the territory that they DID annex. But I see Israel ruling the West Bank without giving Palestinians there a say in that rule as more problematical than the Crimean situation.
It pains me deeply to note that this is a "dog bites man" story. The far right in Israel will be the seeds of her destruction, unless they acquire some sense, and quickly.
"if only Europe and the Obama administration can be assured that Iran really does not want a nuclear warhead and is not an aggressive power in the region"
Iran may or may not want a nuclear warhead. But no one can credibly deny they are not an aggressive power in the region.
Yes and yes. There are identifiable "Jewish" genes (found in at least one African tribe, the Lemba). But one who converts to Judaism is just as Jewish as one born a Jew (if your conversion is "acceptable"). Israel has a broader definition of who can claim citizenship - if you have a grandparent who was Jewish.
Professor Cole, how would our constitution "forestall it"? The first amendment says that THIS country won't have an established religion, but says nothing about other countries. The US maintains diplomatic relations with Vatican City, after all.
"If the Grand Rabbi took haplotypes seriously" The Grand Rabbi is not required to take haplotypes seriously. The orthodox definition of "who is Jewish?" is clear - having a Jewish mother, or having an acceptable conversion makes one 100% Jewish. I'm not sure what Netanyahu means, but perhaps you should have limited your inquiry to that. Your intellectual gymnastics about the question itself displays uncommon ignorance on your part.
Not racism, but maybe another kind of bias. Guns vs bombs. Shootings happen all the time in the US. Tragic but very common, so they don't get as much press.
"The Israeli government, after a long period of neutrality, seems increasingly to have decided that the Baath must go." Not sure about that. Israel apparently has decided that no Syrian weaponry should get transferred to Hizbollah, but this is a long-standing position. I don't see that Israel is directly attacking Assad beyond that objective.
It's hubris to say "Religions have to Democratize". The RCC has almost 2 billion adherents, so it's certainly surviving. Perhaps Catholics LIKE the authoritarian style. Being Jewish, it's not my place to say.
Jewish "denominations" and congregations are far more varied in style, with a lot of control devolved to the congregational level, at least outside of Israel. Still, they struggle.
Given that Worf is "the neo-con of Star Trek", in the series Dorn posits, Star Fleet has seen fit to give Worf a command, in full knowledge of these tendencies. So the question you miss is "Has Star Fleet changed, or has Worf changed?"
Possibly neither - in the Star Trek universe, there has been ample evidence of Star Fleet making commander decisions that were not particularly wise.
#6, surprisingly, may not be so. Netanyahu has recently been walking back animosity towards Obama, and disavowing close friendship with Romney. Bibi *did* commit a howler this week, calling Romney "a representative of the US", though, which Romney clearly is not (yet).
I wouldn't compare Libya 2011 to Iraq 2003; how about Iraq 1991 (post-Desert Storm)? When we encouraged Iraqis to rebel against Saddam and then abandoned them? Perhaps Libya 2011 will turn out to be what that WOULD have been if we had backed the Iraqi rebels with more than words.
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When I was at MIT in the early 70s, about a third of the students in Nuclear Engineering were Iranian, iirc.
JEB was in the draft lottery for those born in 1953. His number was 26. Usually those that low got called for induction. Was JEB?
"And frankly I don’t think a Speaker would have dared try to treat a white president that way." If this was 16 years ago, I have no doubt Boehner would have done this while Clinton was president.
You certainly need a 9-dimensional roadmap to follow it. I think it's something like - Turkey hates and opposes the Kurds. Turkey also is occasionally attacked by ISIL, whom they oppose as well. If Kobane falls it'll be bad for Turkey, so even though it'll help the Kurds, Turkey wants Kobane not to fall. Turkey doesn't want to help directly, but they'll let someone else help.
Or perhaps that's not right at all. My head hurts.
The end of national sovereignty didn't begin with the Kurds. ISIL has been operating with no regard for sovereign borders for some time. (And I seem to remember an invasion in 2003 which had little regard for Iraqi sovereignty.)
Also, too - NSA intelligence has been used far more for Drug War prosecutions than for terrorism detection (although it's been sold as the latter).
"the major country of Iraq, which the US surely had under intensive surveillance"
I wonder if that is really true.
I also wonder if ISIL uses the internet. It seems to me that NSA is getting fat and sloppy if they're JUST concentrating on surveillance of the internet and not checking other signals intelligence.
Just a week ago, John Whitbeck was calling for UN peacekeepers in Gaza. (link to juancole.com) Should this incident in the Golan cause him to change his mind about the UN's effectiveness?
Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrah don't count? Shame on you.
In answer to your title question, no. (When is the last time anything important and lasting has achieved 2/3 agreement of both the House and Senate?)
A better question might be - if a vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court before 2017, can Obama get his nominee confirmed?
Even though I am a firm believer in the right of the State of Israel to exist, I have always thought the claim "no Palestine" to be silly. I have Jewish friends born in Jerusalem before 1948 whose birth certificates state they were born in Palestine.
Perhaps that was the reason, or part of it.
I still wonder what was said at that secretive meeting Cheney held with oil execs in the summer of 2001. At that time, oil prices were quite low, and the oil for food program with Saddam was benefiting mostly Russian and French companies.
The invasion of Iraq changed all that. The instability made crude oil prices double, and American companies benefited once Iraq started selling oil again.
You forget #6 - constant calls from solar power telemarketers and even door-to-door salesmen selling "free" solar power panels for roofs in suburbia.
Israel did NOT annex the West Bank and Gaza, only areas of East Jerusalem and the Golan. That, I think, makes it "worse" than Russia's annexation of Crimea. Russia will presumably extend citizenship rights to Crimeans, as Israel did with the inhabitants of the territory that they DID annex. But I see Israel ruling the West Bank without giving Palestinians there a say in that rule as more problematical than the Crimean situation.
It pains me deeply to note that this is a "dog bites man" story. The far right in Israel will be the seeds of her destruction, unless they acquire some sense, and quickly.
Not directly, no. But they finance others to fight in aggressive wars for them.
"if only Europe and the Obama administration can be assured that Iran really does not want a nuclear warhead and is not an aggressive power in the region"
Iran may or may not want a nuclear warhead. But no one can credibly deny they are not an aggressive power in the region.
Yes and yes. There are identifiable "Jewish" genes (found in at least one African tribe, the Lemba). But one who converts to Judaism is just as Jewish as one born a Jew (if your conversion is "acceptable"). Israel has a broader definition of who can claim citizenship - if you have a grandparent who was Jewish.
Professor Cole, how would our constitution "forestall it"? The first amendment says that THIS country won't have an established religion, but says nothing about other countries. The US maintains diplomatic relations with Vatican City, after all.
Who says the women never converted? Why would you assume that?
"If the Grand Rabbi took haplotypes seriously" The Grand Rabbi is not required to take haplotypes seriously. The orthodox definition of "who is Jewish?" is clear - having a Jewish mother, or having an acceptable conversion makes one 100% Jewish. I'm not sure what Netanyahu means, but perhaps you should have limited your inquiry to that. Your intellectual gymnastics about the question itself displays uncommon ignorance on your part.
Bradley Manning will most likely NOT be sentenced today. The hearing to determine his sentence begins today, but will probably take some time.
Not racism, but maybe another kind of bias. Guns vs bombs. Shootings happen all the time in the US. Tragic but very common, so they don't get as much press.
"The Israeli government, after a long period of neutrality, seems increasingly to have decided that the Baath must go." Not sure about that. Israel apparently has decided that no Syrian weaponry should get transferred to Hizbollah, but this is a long-standing position. I don't see that Israel is directly attacking Assad beyond that objective.
It's hubris to say "Religions have to Democratize". The RCC has almost 2 billion adherents, so it's certainly surviving. Perhaps Catholics LIKE the authoritarian style. Being Jewish, it's not my place to say.
Jewish "denominations" and congregations are far more varied in style, with a lot of control devolved to the congregational level, at least outside of Israel. Still, they struggle.
Don't know what the situation is in Islam.
I think you're being unfair to Richard Nixon. Romney lies much more frequently and is much more comfortable with casual mendacity.
Given that Worf is "the neo-con of Star Trek", in the series Dorn posits, Star Fleet has seen fit to give Worf a command, in full knowledge of these tendencies. So the question you miss is "Has Star Fleet changed, or has Worf changed?"
Possibly neither - in the Star Trek universe, there has been ample evidence of Star Fleet making commander decisions that were not particularly wise.
#6, surprisingly, may not be so. Netanyahu has recently been walking back animosity towards Obama, and disavowing close friendship with Romney. Bibi *did* commit a howler this week, calling Romney "a representative of the US", though, which Romney clearly is not (yet).
I wouldn't compare Libya 2011 to Iraq 2003; how about Iraq 1991 (post-Desert Storm)? When we encouraged Iraqis to rebel against Saddam and then abandoned them? Perhaps Libya 2011 will turn out to be what that WOULD have been if we had backed the Iraqi rebels with more than words.