Tuesday's reading list

On the reading list today (aside from my Canadian Politics notes-- last final exam tomorrow!):

• The New York Times has an interesting profile of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the Cabinet's Republican mainstay (and apparently close friend of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel).
• Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post has a great piece on Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Politics 101.
• Another case for good preventative health care and working to eliminate poverty: WaPo also has an article on how "Poverty, Tendency to Self-Medicate Help Drive Up Flu Deaths in Mexico." Bottom line lesson for all of us: If you're starting to get sick, go to the doctor, people!
• BREAKING: The City Council of the District of Columbia has voted, 13-0, to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states!
• On a similar line, The Politico reports that gay rights groups are pushing for Obama to appoint the first openly gay Supreme Court justice.
• Britain's The Guardian has a video on the emerald industry in Afghanistan. Some men, desperate to earn money to feed their families, are going into old emerald mines and, despite their lack of training, searching for even fragments of the precious gems to sell.
• Former Canadian Deputy PM John Manley and former US ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin published a very interesting commentary in the Toronto Globe & Mail today defending Canada's relationship with the US as deeper, stronger, and more longstanding than the US's or Canada's relationship with Mexico.
  
• The above commentary was a response to an article on May 1 by American University Professor Robert Pastor and former Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Andres Rozental, advocating for a stronger tri-country partnership between Canada, the US, and Mexico.
• Jim Wallis has written a tribute to the late Jack Kemp, the "Bleeding-Heart Conservative," on the God's Politics blog.
• Finally, a summary from The New York Times on the annual AIPAC conference-- the most powerful interest group in the United States...and I daresay they know it.