A.M. Links: The Bill and Barack Show, Al-Qaeda Gone, Baby Shuts Down Airport

A.M. Links: The Bill and Barack Show, Al-Qaeda Gone, Baby Shuts Down Airport

| April 30, 2012

  • birds of a feather?President Obama is
    embracing     Bill Clinton for his re-election campaign. “There is
    no better Democratic ally than President Clinton,” said Jim
    Messina, the President’s campaign manager.
  • Al-Qaeda is “essentially gone,” U.S. intelligence officials
    say.  “Affiliates”, they warn, remain a threat. “[T]he
    movement certainly survives, the ideology of the global jihad
    survives, bin Laden’s philosophy, that survives in a variety of
    places outside of Pakistan,” an anonymous U.S. official
    told     the AFP.
  • Gunmen
    attacked     Christian worshippers in Nigeria, killing at least 21.
    No one took responsibility immediately, but the militant Islamist
    group Boko Haram is suspected.
  • Chicago police at next month’s NATO summit will not enforce a
    state eavesdropping law that has been used to prosecute those who
    record police officers. “[W]hile the law is still on the books, it
    is currently being constitutionally challenged,” said Steve Patton,
    corporation counsel for the city. “[T]he fact [is] that the police
    are going to have other things to focus on during the summit.”
  • Homophobia might mean you’re gay, according to new research.
    “It’s important to stress the obvious: Not all those who campaign
    against gay men and lesbians secretly feel same-sex attractions.
    But at least some who oppose homosexuality are likely to be
    individuals struggling against parts of themselves, having
    themselves been victims of oppression and lack of acceptance,” one
    of the researchers
    writes     in Sunday’s New York Times. 
  • Port Authority cops at Newark Airport overreacted when they
    shut down a terminal after a baby went through a checkpoint
    unscreened, according to
    the TSA.

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