Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It was six months ago today when the massive 7.0 earthquake destroyed much of Haiti. There are going to be a number of stories today about that country's recovery, such as it is.

Today, Obama is meeting with the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez.

Congress returns today from the July 4th recess. The Senate has to take up unemployment insurance extension. Hopefully, some of the GOPers who are blocking the unemployment extension learned during the recess that there are still a lot of people hurting because of the economic crisis they helped create -- not that they care about people ho are hurting. Plus, the Senate has to pass the Wall Street reform bill, which most of the GOP caucus vehemently opposes. They won't bite the hand that feeds (or owns) them.

It's looking less and less likely that the Senate will take up the Defense authorization bill in July. The DADT repeal compromise is included in that bill. So, the underlying bill could hit the Senate floor in September. There will be efforts to strip out the DADT repeal language. And, that Pentagon survey on DADT continues to generate controversy. You have to keep asking: What were they thinking? And, it really sounds like the forces opposed to repeal still carry a lot of sway at the Pentagon.

So, busy week ahead.