“The tea party movement has become so rife with internal feuding over philosophy, strategy and money that some supporters fear it will disintegrate before realizing its full potential,” Politico reports. “Some of these groups may burn out, but this is part of this entrepreneurial process and the competition is good,” said Adam Brandon, vice president of communications for FreedomWorks.
“The Obama administration won’t announce its new comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan until after Thanksgiving,” a White House official confirmed to Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin. “Observers and experts close to the discussions see it as the White House’s attempt to stage a full and controlled rollout over the week beginning November 30.”
A new survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association finds that nearly 1 in 10 homeowners with mortgages was at least one payment behind in the third quarter of the year. The delinquency rate is the highest since the association started keeping records in 1972.
The U.S. military says the vast majority of the 700 detainees at the prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan “could eventually be released because they’re fighting more for money than ideology.” Brig. Gen. Mark Martins said that 10 to 20 percent of the inmates at Bagram are considered hard-core or “irreconcilable” Taliban fighters.
“The U.S. Army will allow the media limited coverage of Sarah Palin’s appearance at Fort Bragg, but will bar reporters from interviewing her or her supporters on the post,” reports the AP. “A Fort Bragg spokesman initially said the Army would ban the media from Palin’s book signing next week, fearing it would turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.”
Republican governors have “urged GOP candidates competing in 2010 elections to not harshly attack President Barack Obama, citing polls that show his personal popularity remaining strong despite unease over his policies.” “We need to be careful,” said Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MI). “We need to treat the president respectfully. … This is a guy that people like.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday that it will begin “auditing companies that might have hired” undocumented immigrants. One thousand firms have been “notified” and the agency said it is “focused on finding and penalizing employers who believe they can unfairly get ahead” with undocumented labor.
The Senate finally confirmed Judge David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday following a GOP filibuster that caused a five-and-a-half month delay in his confirmation. “This is a nomination that should be confirmed and should have been confirmed months ago,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told the press.
“America’s once clear dominance in space is eroding” to other nations, including Russia, China and India, a panel of experts told the House subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics yesterday. Sixty nations now have their own space agencies, and “Russia now leads the world in space launches,” the panelists said.
And finally: At the recent Energy and Commerce Committee markup of the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) broke into song.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.