Links, 9-26-11

The biggest news is that Congress has reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown.  Or, perhaps more accurately, FEMA's budgeting pre-empted the debate from continuing.  Republicans wanted to offset federal disaster spending with other cuts while Democrats did not . . . FEMA says it now thinks it has just enough money to fit aid for the latest floods, hurricanes, etc. into its normal operating budget.

Rick Perry still has a large lead in the latest poll on the Republican primaries, but the same poll also finds that Romney is more likely to beat Obama next November.  As the race has increasingly focuses on these two candidates, they have traded barbs -- with Perry now focusing on Romney's well-to-do background.  Meanwhile, many remain unhappy with their choices and are eager for others, particularly NJ Governor Chris Christie to join the race . . . Nate Silver asks whether Chris Christie's potential entrance into the presidential race is a bigger threat to Mitt Romney or Rick Perry.

Obama announced that states would be given waivers to the No Child Left Behind law, which both avoids dramatic increases in the number of schools declared failing over the next three years and circumvents partisan bickering in Congress.

Liberal sites have given a lot of attention to Massachusetts Senatorial Candidate Elizabeth Warren's statement about the "social contract" and "class warfare" while on the campaign trail.  Here's a conservative rebuttal.

Here's a delicious (pun intended) political story about potatoes.  The new recommendations from the USDA call for far fewer potatoes to be served in schools in order to make breakfasts and lunches healthier . . . so members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who reside in large potato producing states (e.g. CO and ME) are banding together to make sure the new rules aren't put into place.


Joshua Holland runs down eight policies Republicans used to support, but now oppose