As Barack Obama has sent planes in to bomb Syria, upping the stakes in the fight against ISIS, the New Yorker‘s Dexter Filkins explains how America wants the Kurds to do two incompatible things: One, to save Iraq from ISIS and, two, to then resist seceding from Iraq. It may be too much to ask of the Kurds, who have only enmity for Iraq, but it also may be the only way America’s One Iraq policy can stand.
The seven countries America has bombed since 9/11. Syria makes No. 7. Via the Atlantic.
How Obama’s yes-we-can presidency turned into at-least-we-tried. Will that really be his legacy? Via the Guardian.
James Mann writes in the New York Times that the Obama presidency isn’t done yet. He’s just getting the same judgment that every second-term president gets in his sixth year.
“And a side of meth, please,” was apparently how customers at a Denver taco truck could place their orders until yesterday, when the office of Colorado AG John Suthers busted one of the biggest and most brazen drug rings in state history. Seventeen people were indicted and 55 pounds of methamphetamine were seized. Via the Denver Post.
Tax refunds of around $130 million are on their way, state economists told lawmakers on Monday. If Colorado’s economy continues to grow, state tax revenue will exceed the combined rate of inflation and population growth, triggering a mandatory cash refund to taxpayers under TABOR — the 1992 amendment to the state constitution beloved by conservatives and reviled by progressives. Revenue from recreational marijuana sales may be included in the refund, despite it falling dismally short of predictions and despite its intended use for school construction and public health initiatives. Via CBS Denver.
Michael Gerson wonders if Chris Christie is the one to broaden Republican appeal in 2016. He explains that Christie’s argument that he’s not a bully is to show that he has surrounded himself with … bullies. Via the Washington Post.
In the latest GOP attempt to win over women via TV ads, we get the woman whose heart is broken by bad boyfriend Obama. Via the New Republic.
Matt Bai takes a swing at the Gary Hart story and tells, once again, how Hart’s downfall changed American politics forever. Via the New York Times.
Daniel Drezner writes in the Washington Post what Bai missed — and why Hart’s downfall didn’t matter that much at all.
[ Image: Kurdistan Kurd Arbil Erbil by Jan Sefti. ]