Here in New England, people look forward to April as the days turn longer, and warmer and the first signs of Spring emerge. The young, and young at heart, often recite the old standard, "April showers bring May flowers." Unfortunately, in far too many parts of world, April is not a month to look forward to, as April is well on its way to becoming known as a month of tragedy; one with a strange and deadly history.
You might have thought that the Lioness had troubles enough with the current war in Iraq without delving back 90 years to dig up more!
Of course, lots of crazy measures make progress in Congress - and, to the extent I thought about it at all, I'd rather put H Res 106 in that category.
My recollection is that the Armenian lobby is a good deal more influential in DC than raw numbers might suggest. And the Armenia Big Thing worldwide is official recognition of the 1915 genocide.
So far as I can see, it's basically a pissing contest: the diaspora don't expect material benefits, they don't use the recognition as a bargaining chip in domestic politics - what they want to do is prove their political virility by forcing their host countries to poke Turkey in the eye.
And these are countries which have generally good relations with Turkey - at least, they do until they get involved in the Armenian genocide question!
When it comes to the US House, though, trouble was liable to come from a little closer to home:
Perfectly predictably, the WH cuts up rough. And this time, with good reason: what with those Turkish invasion threats, not a good time for ceremonial bird-flipping.
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