ChrisWeigant.com

Archive of Articles for April, 2013

Movement On Syria?

[ Posted Tuesday, April 30th, 2013 – 17:53 UTC ]

Since I spent yesterday on the subject of Syria, I thought I'd follow up with today's movement and signals from the White House. Don't have any real analysis today, just passing along the recent developments, that's all.

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Playing "Decider" On Syria

[ Posted Monday, April 29th, 2013 – 16:38 UTC ]

We seem to be at one of those "decider" moments on the world stage. President Obama stated that use of chemical or biological weapons by the Assad regime in Syria would be a "red line" or a "game changer" and that America would respond to such use in unspecified ways, with serious consequences. The evidence is now in, and several intelligence agencies (in several countries) now say it is likely that Syria has indeed used such weapons, most likely the poison Sarin. This is the decision point Obama now faces.

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Friday Talking Points [255] -- Helium Brains

[ Posted Friday, April 26th, 2013 – 17:35 UTC ]

That was all a prelude to the breaking news today: "Congress moves at lightspeed, to fix a problem that would have hit them personally, as they take yet another weeklong vacation instead of doing the nation's business." Could've knocked me over with a feather. Ahem.

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Three-Dot Thursday...

[ Posted Thursday, April 25th, 2013 – 16:49 UTC ]

Just time for a few quick news items that seem to be begging for comment by yours truly... and as is our tradition for these disjointed columns, we will present these in true Herb Caen fashion, practicing a bit of three-dot journalism in homage...

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A Response To Gil Kerlikowske: Obama Drug Policy "Incomplete"

[ Posted Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 – 17:06 UTC ]

In a word, your assignment is woefully incomplete on a single subject: marijuana. This word appears not once in either document, which is kind of astounding since this is truly the only part of the White House drug policy which currently (and desperately) needs addressing, given the changing political situation. To put this another way, your paper might have garnered a higher grade last year, but we now live in 2013, and you have failed to address -- at a minimum -- the fact that the states of Colorado and Washington have now legalized recreational marijuana, and the number of states which have approved medicinal marijuana is approaching 40 percent. By failing to use the word "marijuana" once, you are ignoring the entire point of the assignment, which is why your grade range is currently just above abject failure.

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Program Note

[ Posted Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 – 18:39 UTC ]

OK, I know I said "by this weekend" last Thursday, but like everything else in this entire furshlugginer process, putting the finishing touches on the final text draft of my writing project has taken longer than I expected.
Translation: I was too busy to write a column today.
But the good news is that by the time [...]

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Immigration Reform's Chances

[ Posted Monday, April 22nd, 2013 – 16:51 UTC ]

What are the chances comprehensive immigration reform is actually going to happen this year? Your guess is really as good as mine, since we're only at the beginning of a very long path -- one that leads to Obama's desk, but one that also has a lot of dead-ends and side branchings off to legislative doom. Whether a bill can make it through the Senate and (especially) the Republican-controlled House is a very open question, even without the complications of the Boston Marathon bombers.

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Friday Talking Points [254] -- A Very Full Week

[ Posted Friday, April 19th, 2013 – 17:17 UTC ]

Some weeks, I sit down to write this weekly wrapup, and find that there isn't that much to talk about, because nothing much happened that particular week.

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Program Note

[ Posted Thursday, April 18th, 2013 – 17:30 UTC ]

Before I begin, allow me to apologize for my dereliction of duty not only today (that's a gentle way of saying "no column today, folks!"), but over the past weeks and months. I have, as many of you know, been distracted by trying to put together sample chapters of a book. This has [...]

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This Just In... To CNN...

[ Posted Wednesday, April 17th, 2013 – 16:32 UTC ]

I'd like to start off today's article with an excerpt from a New York Times story, to make a point. Here is what ran in the Times, with a few sentences left out.

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