It didn’t take long, but Barack Obama has already lost the New York Times’ editorial board on his decision to bomb the Islamic State in Syria. The Times says that we haven’t had the public debate — and Congress hasn’t had the congressional debate — that we should have before getting fully involved in what could well be a long and costly war. We don’t know what the plan, what the risks are or what the costs might be. Does any of that sound familiar? It should. But one problem is, as Brian Beutler points out in the New Republic, is that, for the most part, Congress couldn’t be happier not to have to vote.
If you’re counting how many sides there are to the Syrian civil war, you might start with the two sides that America has already bombed. Via the Atlantic.
It was the Rockefeller Brothers Fund – not the much larger Rockefeller Foundation — that gave up on oil. Vauhini Vara writes in the New Yorker that it was not exactly like McDonald’s heirs swearing off meat.
We don’t yet know if this will be a wave year in the U.S. Senate, but Ronald Brownstein notes that the one thing we can count on is that change — if not hope — is now the Senate way. Via the National Journal.
The New York Times’ Upshot comes up with four possible reasons why the clear Republican advantage this year may not be showing up as much in Senate races.
Both U.S. Senators from Colorado are pushing for the extension of a federal program called Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), which helps local municipalities with large swaths of federal land holdings — like much of the West that’s riddled with national parks, forests, BLM land and military bases — make up for lost tax revenue. Federal land isn’t subject to property taxes, so the program, which was extended for a year as part of the last Farm Bill, awards funding on a county-by-county basis. Via the Durango Herald.
Hillary Clinton and Saul Alinsky: Can Clinton be both a closet Alinsky radical and a politician who cozies up to Wall Street fat cats. Of course she can. All you have to do is tune in to the right-wing mediasphere. Via Slate.
Colorado Springs City Council unanimously voted to make good on an outstanding pension liabilities at Memorial hospital Tuesday. The $190 million settlement represents the end of the long legal battle over the terms of the city’s leasing the hospital to the University of Colorado Health. Via the Gazette.
David Brooks writes that it’s time to snap out of it — that things aren’t nearly as bad as they could be. Via the New York Times.
No questions asked: local law enforcement and the DEA are holding a prescription drug take-back program in Pueblo on Saturday. The initiative, called the Nationwide Prescription Drug Roundup is all about public safety — surplus and expired pills shouldn’t just sit in the cabinet or get flushed down the toilet. Via the Pueblo Chieftain.
Newspaper owner celebrates the newspaper industry’s “vibrant” future by shutting down a newspapers. Via Vox.
Compiled by Mike Littwin, Nat Stein and John Tomasic.
[ Cockpit image via “Dr. Strangelove.” ]
