By RP Staff, on Thu Jun 16, 2011 at 2:00 PM ET RIGHT NOW contributing RP Lisa Borders and the RP are co-hosting the weekly episode of No Labels Radio.
Their primary guest is U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who will discuss the work being done to forge a bipartisan solution to the nation’s fiscal problems.
Click here to tune into the broadcast.
No Labels is a new grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America. No Labels Radio will offer a weekly dose of news and interviews with the policymakers who are working to find bipartisan answers to the otherwise intractable problems our country faces.
By RP Staff, on Thu Jun 16, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET The Politics of Immigration Throughout modern history, people have emigrated from their countries of origin (émigrés) and people have immigrated to a second or even third country (immigrants). And then there have been those who have been banished from a country. Your correspondent has always been fascinated by how Great Britain’s penal system, between the years 1788 and 1868, was so severe and draconian that their own citizens were routinely and literally sent half way around the world to the continent of Australia for their crimes. Here’s a fascinating article (including a rare Rogues’ Gallery) about the first “citizens” of Australia from Archaeology Magazine. To learn even more, check out Robert Hughes’s exceptional The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding.
Many Americans only think of “immigration” in narrow and often stereotypical terms. Immigrants, refugees, displaced people—over 200 million human beings on the move annually—exist everywhere. The Boston Globe this week published some extraordinary images of immigrants throughout the world from over the last fortnight or so. The Big Picture
Last week, the RP pointed out the difficulties of being raised and educated as the child of an undocumented immigrant in the United States–perhaps graduating first in your Senior class only to be told that you are not eligible to participate in higher education because of the status of your parent (see last week’s piece on the DREAM Act). Now, Alabama’s new, far-reaching and extraordinary immigration bill (which makes it a crime to simply give an undocumented person a ride in your car) would not only punish the children of immigrants by demanding “to see their papers” as it were, but would make teachers effectively immigration agents. Alabama’s Immigration Law: The New Jim Crow
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Jun 16, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET Today at 2 PM EDT, contributing RP Lisa Borders and I are co-hosting the weekly episode of No Labels Radio.
No Labels is a new grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America. No Labels Radio will offer a weekly dose of news and interviews with the policymakers who are working to find bipartisan answers to the otherwise intractable problems our country faces.
Our primary guest is U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who will discuss the work being done to forge a bipartisan solution to the nation’s fiscal problems.
Click here to find out more about today’s broadcast.
OK, RP Nation.
Here’s your last chance to suggest a question for one of the most prominent politicians of the past decade.
Make your suggestions in the comments section below. And then tune in at 2 PM EDT to see if I used it.
Thanks for your help!
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Thu Jun 16, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
A five dollar raffle ticket could win you a dinner with President Obama. [CNS News]
Still perfectly coifed, even in a mug-shot: the continuing saga of John Edwards. [LA Times]
Politico’s hilarious compilation of greatest hits from the Republican New Hampshire debate: watch the video here. [Politico]
Watch the latest interview with N.J. Governor Chris Christie. His thoughts on 2012, Obama, and his biggest regret. [Huffington Post]
Obama and the Congress: The War Powers Act debate rages on. Where do you stand on the issue? [NY Times]
By Ronald J. Granieri, on Thu Jun 16, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET Syracuse University Professor and Friend of RP Ronald J. Granieri tackled an important subject recently for The American Interest magazine: Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser and — more importantly — the namesake of the RP’s high school. Here is his fascinating take on the legend from Lexington and how he has come between two GOP politicians in Kentucky today:
This past February, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) used his maiden speech on the Senate floor to attack one of his home state’s most cherished historical heroes. Standing at Henry Clay’s Senate desk, Paul criticized the legacy of the Great Compromiser. “Henry Clay’s life story is, at best, a mixed message”, Paul said. “Henry Clay’s great compromise was over slavery. One could argue that he rose above sectional strife to carve out compromise after compromise trying to ward off civil war. Or one could argue that his compromises were morally wrong and may have even encouraged war, that his compromises meant the acceptance, during his fifty years of public life, of not only slavery, but the slave trade itself.”
Paul admitted that there were no questions before the Senate with the same moral force as slavery; he nevertheless went on to pose a series of rhetorical questions about whether America’s current national debt problems might not be best solved by strong attachment to principles rather than compromise.
Paul’s speech raised eyebrows not merely because of its aggressive tone, unusual for freshman Senators, but also because his apparently abstract references to Clay were to many a sign of tensions between Paul and his senior colleague, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell had favored a different candidate in Kentucky’s Republican primary and, more to the point of Paul’s message, he has often counted Clay among his political role models. A portrait of Clay adorns McConnell’s Senate office, and he once told an interviewer that Clay “understood the need for compromises that were truly important for the country. . . . I think that remains just as true today as it did in 1820 or 1850.”
To read the rest of Granieri’s piece, click here.
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Jun 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET Tomorrow at 2 PM EDT, contributing RP Lisa Borders and I are co-hosting the weekly episode of No Labels Radio.
No Labels is a new grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America. No Labels Radio will offer a weekly dose of news and interviews with the policymakers who are working to find bipartisan answers to the otherwise intractable problems our country faces.
Our primary guest is U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who will discuss the work being done to forge a bipartisan solution to the nation’s fiscal problems.
Click here to find out more about tomorrow’s broadcast.
Here’s your big chance, RP Nation.
Here’s your chance to suggest a question for one of the most prominent politicians of the past decade.
Want me to ask him about the budget debate? The 2008 election? His service in Vietnam? His choice of Sarah Palin? His appearances on Saturday Night Live?
Make your suggestions in the comments section below. And then tune in tomorrow to see if I used it.
Thanks for your help!
By Zac Byer, on Wed Jun 15, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET I finished my first year of law school in May. The grind-it-out days of 1L behind me, I jumped on the first flight I could out of my “home” in Philadelphia to my “home-home” outside Los Angeles. Having studied out-of-state as an undergraduate as well, I have grown accustomed to the cross-country flight, just as I know exactly what to expect from my two weeks of vacation back in California. I’ll play some golf with Dad, see some of my oldest friends, watch the L.A. Dodgers (now a team of minor leaguers, without the minor league prices or the minor league promo nights) with my brother, and see a movie with Mom.
I love those two weeks. I love them because I can power down and skip the morning coffee for fourteen days. I love them because the best times are the ones spent with those who know you best, who love you deepest, and who you trust the most. It was a great two weeks.
Much to my Mom’s dismay, we bypassed the matinee of The Hangover 2. Just thinking about watching that movie with her makes me uncomfortable. Instead, we saw Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. In the movie, Gil, a hack screenplay writer, is stuck in a rut while vacationing in Paris. He has to deal with his relentless wife Inez, who chomps at the bit to experience the highbrow Paris of 2011. Gil is also a daydreamer, a middle-aged writer caught in a quasi-romantic affair with the literary legends of 1920s Paris with whom he magically makes contact. Each night, Gil is whisked away to the older decade that he fantasizes about constantly. And each day, he remains entranced by his nighttime rendezvous with the past.
Read the rest of…
The Politics of Gen Y: Making Time for Tomorrow
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Wed Jun 15, 2011 at 2:15 PM ET
In a lot of ways, baseball teams are defined by First Basemen. Look around the league today: Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and Ryan Howard are all first basemen. Here are some teams in need of help at that spot. [MLB Trade Rumors]
Major League Baseball is considering realigning the American and National Leagues in interesting ways. I am ALL FOR THIS. I think divisions in baseball are a crime. Great teams in the AL East and NL East/Central with better records consistently miss the playoffs so that some sub .500 team in the West can go to the playoffs. [ESPN]
While MLB has a pretty good idea of how the realignment would take place, Deadspin has a new plan. The saddest sports city in America would just get sadder. [Deadspin]
Speaking of the Mariners, this is an excellent essay about Ichiro Suzuki and what he has meant to baseball. It comes from Bill Simmon’s Grantland, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places on the Internet. [Grantland]
The College World Series has begun, and here is an interesting piece about how it is the “last pure college championship.” I don’t know if I agree with everything this guy says, but its definitely an interesting read and worth your time. [SB Nation]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Wed Jun 15, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
A woman turns to social media (Facebook, specifically) to try and gain an upper-hand on her ex-husband. Not everything was as it seemed. [Time Newsfeed]
Too easy? Meh, I still like it. [picture]
That water is really cold. [picture]
One of the stranger newspaper police reports I’ve seen. [newspaper]
If you watch NASA backwards. . . [Twitter]
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Jun 15, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET It’s what you’ve been up late nights awaiting…
The final episode of the RP’s classic quadrology (is that the next step after trilogy?): Part 4 of his home energy rehab.
If you missed Parts 1-3, the audit and the rehab, which includes some exciting film of the geothermal work done on the Miller Home, click here.
In Part 4, Jamie Clark of Arronco leads the RP through the final stages of the rehab, and then through the quality assessment, made possible by the Kentucky Home Performance program.
 If I’ve inspired you to explore an energy efficiency rehab at your own residence, and you live in Kentucky, we have a great new program called KY Home Performance – that I’m using for my own home — which provides low-interest loans or generous rebates to KY citizens. You can find out more here.
 If you live in the region, amd you’d like to specifically contact Jamie Clark of Arronco — who is both the contractor of the rehab as well as the tour guide of this film — go to this link. Arronco can install geothermal, as well as the more traditional electric and gas rehab work, in an extraordinarily affordable and environmentally-friendly way.
If you live outside of Kentucky, click here for a US Department of Energy site that provides links to programs in all 50 states.
Read the rest of…
RPTV: My Home Energy Rehab, Part 4
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