News Nuggets 1271

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Jameson's Mamba Snake in Cameroon.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT OBAMACARE NUGGET!!
Republican Health Care Panic (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times 
"Conservatives and others on the right are confronting their ultimate nightmare: that Obamacare is probably going to work."

Afghan War Poll Finds That Two-Thirds Say That It Wasn't Worth The Cost from the Huffington Post
"Nearly 12 years after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan, two-thirds of Americans think that the war was not worth the cost, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday."
It seems to be the case that every generation since World War II needs to relearn the lessons of Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq and Afghanistan: don't go to war unless you HONEST-TO-GOD have no other choice.  Cavalier adventuring like that practiced by the Bush administration was a double-barreled mistake of historic proportions and we (and that region of the middle east) will be living with the negative consequences for the foreseeable future.

Halliburton will Plead Guilty in BP Gulf Oil Spill (Ben Geman) from The Hill
"Oilfield services giant Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced Thursday evening."

Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, Driver Of Derailed Train In Spain: 'I Want To Die' from the Huffington Post
"Police detained Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, in the hospital where he was being treated for minor injuries on Friday. According to local media reports cited by the Telegraph, authorities received transcripts of the driver lamenting in the wake of the crash: "I've fucked it up. I want to die.""
Nope.  You get to live, buddy.  And Spanish authorities are going to make an example out of you, you can count on it.

White House hardens stance on budget cuts ahead of showdown with Republicans from the Washington Post
"The posture represents a more confrontational approach than that of this spring, when President Obama decided not to escalate a fight over across-the-board reductions known as sequestration in an earlier budget battle with Republicans."

GOP Feuds Over Obamacare Tactics from Politico
"A growing number of Republicans are rejecting calls from leading conservatives, including Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, to defund the president’s health care law in the resolution to keep the government running past Sept. 30. The rift exposes an emerging divide over how the GOP can best achieve its No. 1 goal — to repeal Obamacare — while highlighting the spreading fears that Republicans would lose a public relations war if the dispute leads to a government shutdown in the fall."

GOP To Conservatives: Stop Acting Crazy Over Obamacare from Talking Points Memo
"The GOP push to hold government funding hostage to gutting Obamacare appears to be losing steam in Congress as a growing chorus of Republicans and conservative writers are coming out of the woodwork to urge hardliners within their party to be realistic."
When you play around too much with feeding the beast, its no surprise when the day comes when the beast feeds on you.

Senior GOPer: Try To Ditch Obamacare? Dream On, Guys from Talking Points Memo
"Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a deputy majority whip, has taken to the airwaves over the last 24 hours to pour cold water on GOP attempts to demand that the party withhold support for keeping the federal government open after Sept. 30 unless Obamacare is gutted. He has dismissed the conservative effort as a “temper tantrum” and likened it to “blackmail.”"

GOP Senator: Gov’t Shutdown Threats Over Obamacare ‘The Dumbest Idea I’ve Ever Heard’ from Talking Points Memo
"Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) on Thursday tore into efforts by his GOP colleagues to shut down the government if Democrats don't agree to defund Obamacare.  "I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard of," he told reporters. "Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act is going to be law.""

Tom Coburn: Campaign to defund Obamacare ‘dishonest,’ ‘hype’ (Byron York) from the Washington Examiner
"Tensions inside the Republican Party about a proposal to defund Obamacare reached a new level Friday when Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a lawmaker with unsurpassed credibility in the field of cutting federal spending and limiting the size of government, called the defunding plan “dishonest” and “hype.”"

Voting Rights Challenge in Texas Opens Up New Obama-GOP Fight (Sam Baker) from The Hill
"Attorney General Eric Holder’s surprise decision to challenge Texas’s voting laws triggers a huge new fight between the federal government and Southern states dominated by the Republican Party."

Inside Groundswell: Read the Memos of the New Right-Wing Strategy Group Planning a "30 Front War" (David Corn) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Ginni Thomas, Allen West, and a crew of conservative activists and journalists have formed a hush-hush coalition to battle progressives—and Karl Rove."

Septuagenarian Strut (Timothy Egan) from the New York Times
"Discovered inside a full stadium, a cure for baby boomer self-loathing."

Trump Heads to Iowa, Plots a 2016 Run (Robert Costa) from the National Review
"Donald Trump has long resisted calls for him to run for president. But now, at age 67, he tells me he’s considering a bid. “I’m looking,” Trump says. “I have a large following of people who are tired of seeing this country ripped off, and taken advantage of [by] everyone who does business with us."