"It's clear that Iraq poses a major threat. It's clear that its weapons of mass destruction need to be dealt with forcefully, and that's the path we're on."

In a December 2002 interview on NPR, she said, “It’s clear that Iraq poses a major threat. It’s clear that its weapons of mass destruction need to be dealt with forcefully, and that’s the path we’re on. I think the question becomes whether we can keep the diplomatic balls in the air and not drop any, even as we move forward, as we must, on the military side.”
 
But O’Hanlon notes, “The military options she alludes to are not specified. For the Clinton administration, they were typically airstrikes or cruise missile strikes of limited duration and effect, not invasions.”
 
Rice also endorsed the idea of “regime change.” But there is less there than meets the eye. Bill Clinton signed a bill making it U.S. policy to “support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.” But he didn’t mount an invasion. The point was to encourage Iraqis to do the job.
 
In that December interview, Rice also said, “The administration frankly owes the American public a much fuller and more honest assessment of what the costs will be of the actual conflict, as well as the aftermath, the post-conflict reconstruction. And the costs are going to be huge.”
 
Rice didn’t oppose the invasion as boldly and unequivocally as some did. Peter Beinart of The Daily Beast said he listened to interviews she did before the war and concluded, “I still can’t tell whether Susan Rice supported the war or opposed it.” But being cautious and circumspect is not the same thing as supporting the war.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's former company landed a $5 million highway-shipping contract last month with the United States Postal Service.
 
DeJoy continues to own a multimillion-dollar stake in XPO Logistics as of early October. The $5 million deal is the first regular contract for a postal route that XPO Logistics has signed with the USPS in more than a year. XPO's last highway contract with the USPS was in December and was temporary. The one before that was signed in July 2019.

Counties cannot reject mail ballots because of mismatched signatures, PA Supreme Court rules
 
by Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA, Posted: October 23, 2020- 3:03 PM
 
HARRISBURG — Counties cannot reject mail-in and absentee ballots if a voter’s signature on the outer envelope does not match what’s on file, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday, making drawn-out challenges on Election Day less likely.
 
In a 7-0 decision, the high court said there are no provisions in the state’s election code that specifically require counties to match voters' signatures. And, the court noted, in writing the law, the legislature could have explicitly mandated signature matching but did not.
 
“We decline to read a signature comparison requirement into the plain and unambiguous language of the election code,” the justices wrote in their decision.
 
[...]
 
The campaign of President Donald Trump had originally asked a federal judge to permit counties to engage in signature matching, a case that was dismissed earlier this month. Boockvar nonetheless asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter in the hopes of putting it to rest.
 
[...]

Trump's Bid For Philly Poll Watchers Rejected By PA Court
 
 
By Matt Fair - Law360 (October 23, 2020, 1:01 PM EDT) --  
 
LA Pennsylvania appeals court on Friday rejected arguments from President Donald Trump's reelection campaign that poll watchers should be allowed to monitor new satellite election offices in Philadelphia where voters have been able to request, complete and return mail-in ballots.
 
In a 2-to-1 decision, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel agreed that the state's election code, which was amended last year to accommodate a major expansion of mail-in voting, makes no mention of poll watchers being allowed in local election offices.
 
[...]
 
"For this court to read into the election code the right of watchers to be present in Board of Elections' offices, which the legislature did not expressly provide, would be the worst sort of judicial activism," Judge Glazer said in his decision rejecting the Trump campaign's claims. "This court will not engage in such improper conduct, which would be a clear usurpation of the legislative function."
 
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Pittsburgh on Friday morning similarly denied a request from two Republican congressional candidates to have poll watchers at "satellite" election offices around Allegheny County for their upcoming final weekend of operation.
 
[...]
 
Judge Ranjan said the candidates couldn't show they suffered irreparable harm without poll watchers because they could still have "observers" at the offices as long as they don't interfere with voters or go where ballots are being filled out or scanned into the state's tracking system.
 
[...]

Voters in Harris County may continue using drive-thru voting, Texas Supreme Court rules
 
A last-minute challenge by the Republican parties of Texas and Harris County argued the largely Democratic county's new drive-thru polling places were illegal.
 
BY JOLIE MCCULLOUGH OCT. 22, 2020
 
Voters in the state's most populous county can continue casting their ballots for the fall election at 10 drive-thru polling places after the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a last-minute challenge by the Texas and Harris County Republican parties, one of many lawsuits in an election season ripe with litigation over voting access.
 
The court rejected the challenge without an order or opinion, though Justice John Devine dissented from the decision. The justices had already ruled against another challenge to expanded voting access this month because they said the lawsuit was filed too late, noting that altering voting procedures during an election could cause voter confusion.
 
[...]

Last night my wife had a dream that she met Fred Flinstone for brunch on Mars.  
She woke up crying.
Yabba dabba do, she said.
Yabba dabba do indeed.

Well just to be clear I don't know why anyone in the great state of South Carolina would ever vote for Lindsey Graham, it's just outrageous, this is the guy who keeps saying stay tuned, he said he was gonna get to the bottom of Obamagate with the Judiciary Committee which has been a year and a half, actually longer of absolute inert response to these pressing issues of our day. (...)
 
Graham has betrayed President Trump at almost every turn, he has betrayed the American people and his oath of office, he's done absolutely nothing to investigate Obamagate except to tell everyone stay tuned, time and time again, stay tuned, Senator Graham needs to be tuned out in South Carolina.
 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ms [...] 4533701982

Joe Biden's Comments on Fracking in Final Debate May Come Back to Haunt Him in Pennsylvania

When adjusting for population, the number of new infections in Europe has now overtaken those in the United States
 

 
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/cov [...] eason.html

Fauci says it might be time to mandate masks as Covid-19 surges across US
 
"A national mandate probably would not work," he said on Sept 15  
 
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/23/heal [...] index.html

États-Unis : pourquoi votent-ils Trump ?
https://go.squidapp.co/n/fO3qCNF