TheDC Morning is being guest hosted today by The Daily Caller’s Amanda Carey. When you’re done reading, be sure to rate Amanda’s performance here!
1.) Dems not sure if it’s time to hoist the “Mission Accomplished” banner yet — It seems the only consensus in Washington, D.C. on Operation Odyssey Dawn is that there isn’t one. “Some Democratic advocates are already touting President Barack Obama’s Libyan intervention as a success, but others, including Democratic foreign-policy gurus, worry that a continued stand-off will damage the president’s polls and wreck efforts to boost the role of transnational organizations, such as the United Nations,” reports The Daily Caller’s own Neil Munro. Clearly not happy wrapping their arms around a Middle East intervention, Democrats still can’t decide where they stand five days after President Obama launched air strikes in Libya. But not to be out-confused by the Democrats, even Republicans can’t agree if they should support Obama. In fact, they’re pretty much split 50-50 too. Oh, for the days when one president (say, a Republican) started a war and his political party was for it, and the other party was wholly and 100 percent fervidly opposed.
2.) Q: Does Joe Biden think President Barack Obama should be impeached?— After returning from his South American vacation, President Obama was slammed with disapproval from miffed lawmakers over Libya. Okay, that’s expected. But now it appears his own Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden JR, in a Hardball appearance in 2007, emphatically said that a president who launches a military operation without Congressional approval should be impeached! “I want to stand by that comment,” said Biden. “The reason I made it was as a warning. I don’t say those things lightly.” A-W-K-W-A-R-D! “Presumably, now that it’s his boss who’s entering a vaguely defined foreign military foray with no congressional entrance permission and no exit strategy, Joe has had a change of mind,” writes Andrew Malcolm in the LA Times. Now here’s a serious question: who wouldn’t give their right arm to be a fly on the wall during Obama’s next private lunch with Joe “professional foot-eater” Biden?
3.) Some lawmakers sending “We’re Angry!” message loud and clear — For those lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are definitively against (yes, against) U.S. operations in Libya, legislation to choke off funding and extend the proverbial middle finger to President Obama have already begun. According to Amanda Terkel at the Huffington Post, Republican Reps. Tim Johnson of Illinois and Ron Paul of Texas and Justin Amash of Michigan, as well as Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, are so pissed they want to use their chamber’s power of the purse to put a stop to Obama’s war, er, peace-keeping mission. While reasons behind defunding efforts range from constitutional concerns to good old-fashioned spending worries, one thing is for sure: funding for Libya will be under debate on Capitol Hill.
4.) Labor union infected with bipolar disease — “It’s rare for a company with workers targeted by Big Labor for unionization to ask the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a unionization election,” reports The Daily Caller’s Matthew Boyle. “But that’s exactly what hotel chain Hyatt did at four of its locations after Unite Here organizers allegedly badgered its workers by showing up at their houses and following them to places like supermarkets in order to pressure them to unionize.” So the labor union should be thrilled, right? After all that hard work rallying would-be members by, you know, stalking them, following them in the grocery stores, you’d think the folks at Unite Here would cheer at the news of a prospective election! Apparently, it’s only the chase they like. “But regional offices for the NLRB rejected Hyatt’s requests for unionization,” writes Boyle. After all that? Okay, time for Hyatt to send Unite Here a break-up gram.
5.)Turns out, Gaddafi’s something of a klepto — In 2009, Gaddafi called up 15 executives from energy companies operating in Libya’s oil fields and demanded they cover the $1.5 billion bill the country got for its role in the Pan Am Flight 103 and other terrorist attacks. Then, Gaddafi warned the execs if they didn’t step up to the plate, their drilling leases would be in serious jeopardy. But apparently, that’s just another day’s work for Gaddafi! “As American and international oil companies, telecommunications firms and contractors moved into the Libyan market, they discovered that Colonel Qaddafi or his loyalists often sought to extract millions of dollars in ‘signing bonuses’ and ‘consultancy contracts’ – or insisted that the strongman’s sons get a piece of the action through shotgun partnerships,” reports The New York Times. Bottom line? The complexities that make up Gaddafi keep getting uglier and uglier.
6.)Guy behind 2001 anthrax scare was mentally ill — Remember way back when parents would snatch mail from their children and open it on back porches, waiting nervously to see if they would find bills and credit-card offers covered in a white powder? Though it was a full decade ago now, mysteries behind the 2001 anthrax scare are still being revealed. This time, about the architect’s mental state. “A court-ordered panel of experts said Wednesday that security investigators failed to follow up on signs of mental illness that should have prevented the apparent perpetrator of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks from working with anthrax at the Army’s flagship biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Of course, we’ll never know for sure because Bruce Ivin offed himself when he got wind the Department of Justice was going to indict him for being behind the anthrax scare. But apparently the experience, which killed five and sickened 17, could have been prevented if investigators had followed up on early signs of strange psychiatric behavior.
VIDEO: Elizabeth Taylor winning Best Actress for “Butterfield 8” in 1960
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