It’s open. Close-outs:
* JOBS BILL: U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin is parroting the Republican Party line about overwhelming passage by the House today of a so-called jobs bill. Democrats hasten to note it’s mostly a roundup of little stuff passed previously, not a real jobs bill of the sort you’d create by spending some stimulus money. And speaking of jobs: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wants you to know about other Tim Griffin votes — particularly one this week against a Democratic amendment to require American companies to report the number of jobs they have shipped overseas and how many they have in the U.S. Transparency? Accountability? Work for Americans? Ask someone else about that.
* WES CLARK ON WAR ON SYRIA: The former NATO commander writes here against a rush to war in Syria. I’m inclined to listen to the generals, not the chickenhawks.
* LIGNITE: They just won’t quit on lignite in South Arkansas. Calhoun County Judge Floyd Nutt and Dallas County Judge Jimmy Jones each presented $5,000 checks to Southern Arkansas University President Dr. David Rankin today for a research center hoping to encourage lignite exploration. Not enough time and space at the moment to list all the reasons not to jump on this bandwagon, but the first is the free market system, which Republicans like Rankin supposedly revere. If there’s a profit potential in Arkansas lignite reserves, let the damn energy companies pay to evaluate the potential, not taxpayers. Taxpayers didn’t pay to prove the Fayetteville shale. We’re paying plenty now in collateral damage, of course, another factor to consider in triplicate when it comes to lignite.