Please Sir, I Want Some War — Charles P. Pierce on the Senate voting to fund the war against IS and then beat it out of town.
The Congress did a ring-and-run on increased United States involvement in the whatever-the-hell-it-is against ISIS-or-ISIL-or-OASIS-or-whatever the hell it is. It took a vote. The Senate passed the bill to “arm and train” the Syrian rebels vetted personally by John McCain, and then everybody beat feet out of town for the homestretch of the campaign. To their eternal credit, both Edward Markey and Senator Professor Warren voted against the bill. (Nice job getting photographed in the Times walking into the Capitol with Bernie Sanders, Senator Professor. Very, very well-played.) If you’re keeping score at home, four “vulnerable” Democratic senators voted for the bill, including New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen, which can be seen as somewhat ominous. Mark Begich of Alaska voted against it, which can be seen as more than a little brave. Joe Manchin, who had serious doubts about the whole thing two days ago, felt very strongly both ways and voted for the bill, which can be seen as Being Joe Manchin.
(My favorite Informed Speculation is that Senator Professor Warren’s vote is a “good contrast” to Hillary Clinton’s vote for the Iraq War in 2002, and will help SPW with the party’s progressive base, wah-dee-doo-dah, when SPW runs for president, which she is going to do no matter how often she tells us she’s not. These people are worse than the old guys who used to hang out at the OTB on Eighth Avenue.)
And, because this is the Senate, and because the Republican party is insane, the vote for arming rebels in the Levant also was a vote against allowing the likes of Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions to have another tantrum and shut down the government over…immigration.
[…]
And then the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body took a powder. The permanent ruling council of brass hats, however, remains unconvinced. (Although The Washington Post story is very curiously sourced. The only on-the-record military dissenter it cites is a retired general who doesn’t work for the administration any more. There is an oblique reference to an incident involving a battle in Iraq a year ago, and a quote from Rep. Buck McKeon, who, as far as I know, is not a general. That General Martin Dempsey left open the possibility of ground troops at some future date is hardly proof of a permanent “rift,” and neither are a couple of quotes from former Secretaries of Defense and from elsewhere in the national-security peanut gallery. And, just so we’re all clear, when there’s a disagreement between the president and a current military commander, the president wins. Every time. Don’t like it? Move to Myanmar.) I think the whole notion is a trifle nutty as presented; we’re going to arm people to fight both the Assad government and ISIS? More guns to that part of the world? It feels to me like the mission has already begun to creep. And it also feels to me like foreign policy is being made from the precincts under Lindsey Graham’s bed.
A Poor Place to Live — Kyle Munzenrieder in the Miami New Times reports on the gap between rich and poor in Miami.
As Miami’s real estate market has boomed to glittering new heights of luxury since 2010, the area’s median household income remains the second lowest of any major metro area while poverty has continued to increase. It’s embarrassing, if not depressing.
According to new data released this week from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the median income for a household in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area is just $46,946 in 2013.
That’s the second lowest level in the nation’s top 25 metro areas. Only Tampa has a lower median household income. In fact, the two Florida metro areas are the only areas on the list where the median income is less than $50,000.
The median income is actually down from 2012, when it was $47,154. Though, it’s slightly up since 2010 when the median income was $45,352.
Meanwhile, poverty levels in the city have only gotten worse since 2010, with 17.7 percent of South Floridians now living below the poverty line.
In fact, 7.4 percent of South Floridians live on an income of less than half of what’s considered poverty (compare that to the national average of 7 percent). Another 10.3 percent live on an income that is 50 percent to 99.9 percent of the poverty line (compared to the national average 8.8). An additional 5.7 percent live above the poverty line, but make no more than 125 percent of the poverty threshold (nationally it’s 4.8 percent).
Miami has the second highest level of those living in poverty or near poverty, behind only Riverside, California.
In 2012, 17.5 percent of South Floridians lived in poverty. In 2010 that number was only 17.1 percent.
Miami certainly seems to be proving that old cliché: as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
The Queen Accepts — Andy Borowitz on Her Majesty’s largesse for an errant child.
LONDON (The Borowitz Report) – In the aftermath of Scotland’s “no” vote in the referendum on becoming an independent country, Queen Elizabeth II, of Great Britain, took to the airwaves on Friday morning to inform the people of Scotland that she “graciously and wholeheartedly” accepted their apology.
“Although the matter of independence has been settled, one question remains very much open,” she said in an address televised across Scotland. “And my answer to that question is this: yes, I forgive you.”
The Queen made only scant reference to her obscenity-laden tirade on Thursday, in which she reamed the Scots for even considering breaking away from the United Kingdom.
“Like any parent with a naughty child, I became a little cross,” she said. “I forgive you for provoking me.”
The Queen ended Friday’s address to the Scottish people on a conciliatory note. “Let us all, each and every one of us, move forward now as one great nation, enjoying the benefits and the history of our glorious and historic union,” she said. “Even the forty-five percent of you who are wankers.”
Doonesbury — Catching a break.
