U.S. withholding military aid to Pakistan
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 11th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
U.S. withholding military aid to Pakistan
The Obama administration has delayed payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in promised military aid and reimbursement to Pakistan to reflect its displeasure with that country’s lagging security cooperation, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.
The decision to withhold the aid follows Pakistan’s cancellation of visas for more than 100 U.S. Special Operations trainers working with that country’s Frontier Corps, along with its refusal to issue visas for equipment technicians, after long-escalating bilateral tensions culminated in the cross-border U.S. raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden.
Finding good homes for lighthouses
For sale: Historic waterfront property with a spectacular, 50-foot-high view of Lake Michigan. Featuring solid, century-old cast-iron construction, painted distinctive red. Comes with its own Fresnel lens for signaling ships.
If that sounds attractive, act now: the Kenosha North Pierhead Lighthouse in Wisconsin is up for auction by the U.S. General Services Administration, but bids are due by Wednesday afternoon. If you miss the deadline, there’s still the Conneaut Harbor West Breakwater Light in Ohio, which is open for bidding until July 20.
2012 Republican presidential campaign: Who will Iowa’s Ames Straw Poll make, break?
For the next month, the 2012 Republican presidential race is all about Ames.
As in Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University and one of the quadrennial rites of passage for any Republican presidential contest: the Ames Straw Poll.
The poll, which will be held on Aug. 13, amounts to a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party. But since 1979 it has also been regarded as a key early test of strength in the Hawkeye State.
Delayed payments in 1979 offer glimpse of default consequences
The Sunday airwaves brimmed once again with talk of what would – or would not – happen if lawmakers fail to meet the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the nation’s legal limit on borrowing. Unmentioned by either side was an obscure bit of budgetary history in which the country did default on some of its bills, and wound up paying the consequences.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that inaction “would be catastrophic for the economy” and added that “no responsible leader would say the United States of America, for the first time in its history, should not pay its bills, meet its obligations.”
Flake a case study in Hill survival
Spectacularly lurid personal falls of American politicians — most recently Anthony Weiner, John Ensign and John Edwards — tend to obscure the quiet stories of unlikely political comebacks in Washington, those devoid of titillation. Jeff Flake’s story serves as a reminder that Washington is rife with second acts.
In 2006, Flake (R-Ariz.) was politically pummeled and left for dead over his persistent criticism of other House Republicans for supporting pork-barrel spending projects. Party members, including current House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, subjected Flake to public humiliation: They stripped him of his seat on the House Judiciary Committee.
