The Commentariat -- May 24, 2015

Internal links removed.

Aw, Poor Mitch. As Ye Sow, so Shall Ye Reap: the Misadventures of Mitch. Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: ... as senators raced for the airport on Saturday after a six-week session that ended in disarray, they left behind a wreck of promises made by Mr. McConnell on how a renewed Senate would operate. Mr. McConnell has found himself vexed by Democratic delaying tactics he honed in the minority, five presidential aspirants with their own agendas and a new crop of conservative firebrands demanding their say." CW: Quite an enjoyable read. Steinhauser & Weisman really let McConnell have it. ...

... Dustin Volz & most of the National Journal's reporting staff, though more circumspect than the Times reporters, demonstrate how McConnell screwed up the vote. As Harry Reid remarked, "'That's what happens when you try to jam everything in just a short period of time.'... When asked if anything would change next Sunday, Reid said, 'I don't know, you'll have to ask Rand Paul [and] the Republicans.'" CW: I kind of enjoy the fact that this is an All-Kentucky Show. And, BTW, Li'l Randy's amendments -- for which McConnell refused/didn't have time to schedule a vote -- sound like pretty good ones. They certainly deserved Senate consideration. Also, both stories suggest that Randy is just grandstanding for fun & profit -- and he is doing that, too -- but I think there's a big measure of sincerity here, at least by politicians' standards.

... Julian Hattem & Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The Senate is preparing for a last-minute attempt to save expiring portions of the Patriot Act, but it may already be too late. The Obama administration is already starting to end the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk collection of Americans' phone records, after legislative inaction forced the upper chamber to kick the can until next Sunday -- mere hours before the laws expire. Without congressional approval, the White House failed to ask the secretive Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the program by a Friday deadline." ...

... Salon excerpts a portion of a book titled After Snowden, etc." by Hodding Carter III, in which Carter, a long-time journalist & former Carter (no relation) administration official, reveals that he has changed his mind about Ed Snowden. He blames much of the mainstream media for attacking, rather than embracing, Snowden's contributions.

Anna Palmer of Politico: "Unions are keeping their fight against a trade bill alive. The AFL-CIO and its allies are organizing dozens of events over the Memorial Day recess to keep the pressure on House Democrats and Republicans as the chamber nears consideration of 'fast track' trade legislation."

Campbell Robertson & John Schwartz of the New York Times: A new peer-reviewed report puts most of the blame for the failure of New Orleans' levees during Hurricane Katrina on the Army Corps of Engineers, largely, though not entirely, absolving local politicians, lobbyists & Congress.

Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "A judge in Las Vegas has ruled that a lawsuit involving accusations of graft and organised crime ties to casinos owned by the multibillionaire and Republican party funder, Sheldon Adelson, will be heard in the US. The decision raises the prospect of Adelson facing difficult questions about his business practices following allegations by a former chief executive of his highly profitable casinos in the Chinese enclave of Macau that a well-known triad crime figure was used to bring in high-rolling gamblers and of influence peddling with Chinese officials.... [The case could] have a bearing on the 81-year-old billionaire's considerable political influence." CW: Yeah, because Scott Walker, et al., won't take his money.

God News

Joan Walsh of Salon: Last week was a bad week for the family-values crowd. "The entire Republican field is united on the inferiority of gay families, but hails parents like the Duggars, who let their son prey on his sisters for a year without going to authorities. Meanwhile, Fox News remains silent about the behavior of [Bill] O'Reilly, [who ignored & abused his own family,] because his angry white patriarch shtick is the core of its brand. The NFL is now more sensitive to the concerns of women’s rights advocates than Fox is." ...

... Emma Margolin of MSNBC: Mike Huckabee is standing by the Duggar parents, who covered up their son's sexual abuse of his sisters and other young girls. Akhilleus wrote about this last week. Because god will forgive them or something. CW: I hate that this "news" has crept into the political sphere, but when you have an entire political party that has aligned itself with the fundamentalist right, it seems inevitable.

Steve Benen: The religious right doesn't seem to care about First Amendment freedoms when a minister is arrested & taken into custody by exercising her religious freedom to officiate at a same-sex wedding in Alabama where "a federal judge ruled Thursday that same-sex couples have the right to marry in every Alabama county, but the ruling is on hold pending the Supreme Court's verdict in a related case." Yo, Ben Carson, where are you? (See story linked under Presidential Race.) ...

Presidential Race

Patrick Healy & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "As President Obama grapples with the unnerving territorial gains of the Islamic State last week, the Republicans eyeing the White House are struggling to put forward strategies of their own. The most detailed ideas have come from [Lindsey] Graham, a United States senator from South Carolina who is on the Armed Services Committee, yet he ranks so low in polls that it is unclear if he will qualify to participate in the coming candidate debates."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Ben Carson won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Saturday, demonstrating his popularity among conservative activists at one of the party's traditional presidential cattle call events. Carson... finished first with 25 percent. He was followed by Scott Walker, who received 20 percent, and Ted Cruz at 16 percent. Chris Christie and Rick Perry tied at 5 percent, with Jeb Bush narrowly behind. Marco Rubio tied with Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul at 4 percent." ...

... Christian Nation. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "Ben Carson ... told Republicans on Saturday that they shouldn't allow the government to encroach on their religious liberties. Carson's comments came during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City. 'Don't let the secular progressives drive God out of our lives,' Carson said. 'We have to stop letting them bully us.... We back down too easily. It's an important part of who we are.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Ida Lieszkovszky of Cleveland.com: "A judge ruled Saturday morning that Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo is not guilty of two charges of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 29, 2012 police chase and shooting that ended in the deaths of two people. Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell said that while Brelo did fire lethal shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, other officers did as well. O'Donnell also concluded that Brelo was not guilty of the lesser included offense of felonious assault because he was legally justified in his use of deadly force." ...

... Adam Ferrise of Cleveland.com: "Demonstrators on Saturday reacted with anger after the not guilty verdicts in Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo's trial. Some three to four dozen protestors carrying signs outside the Cuyahoga County Justice Center expressed anger but said they would remain calm following the verdicts." ...

... Patrick Cooley of Cleveland.com has the backstory. ...

... Kimbriell Kelly & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post write more about how the killings of Russell & Williams went down & on the history of the case. "The Department of Justice began investigating Cleveland police in March 2013 following a string of 'highly-publicized' use-of-force incidents. The investigation ended in 2014, concluding that the department 'engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force.' Officials with Justice and Cleveland are working to develop reforms overseen by a monitor. After the judge's verdict, the Civil Rights Division at Justice, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office issued a joint statement that said they would review testimony and evidence from the trial and 'collaboratively determine what, if any, additional steps are available and appropriate.' That review is independent, the statement said, of the federal pattern and practice investigation."

Timothy Phelps of the Los Angeles Times: "Subtle changes made in the criminal charges against six Baltimore police officers could reflect weaknesses in the hurriedly filed case arising from the death of Freddie Gray, legal experts say. A grand jury on Thursday presented its indictment against the officers. Though it largely mirrored the original charges filed by State's Atty. Marilyn Mosby, the revisions renewed complaints that Mosby moved too quickly and overcharged the officers."

Way Beyond

Danny Hakim & Douglas Dalby of the New York Times: "Ireland became the first nation to approve same-sex marriage by a popular vote, sweeping aside the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church in a resounding victory Saturday for the gay rights movement and placing the country at the vanguard of social change. With the final ballots counted, the vote was 62 percent in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and 38 percent opposed." ...

... It's worth checking out the front page of the Irish Times.

Sondos Asem, an Egyptian political activist, in a Washington Post op-ed, discusses her work in Egypt & the death sentence which an Egyptian court imposed upon her & others, including former President Mohamed Morsi. Asem is in Britain.

The Commentariat -- May 23, 2015

All internal links removed.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "After vigorous debate and intense last-minute pressure by Republican leaders, the Senate on Saturday rejected legislation that would end the federal government's bulk collection of phone records. With the death of that measure -- passed overwhelmingly in the House earlier this month -- senators then scrambled to hastily pass a short-term measure to keep the program from going dark when it expires June 1 but failed. The disarray in Congress appeared to significantly increase the chances that the government will lose systematic access to newly created calling records by Americans, at least temporarily, after June 1.... The measure failed in the Senate 57 to 42, with 12 Republicans voting for it, shortly after midnight because [Rand] Paul, a candidate for the White House, dragged the procedure out as he promised to do in fund-raising tweets and emails." ...

... CW: I read Steinhauer's lede three times, & I still didn't get it. ...

... Mike DeBonis & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Senators left Capitol Hill early Saturday morning without taking action to extend or replace a controversial surveillance program set to expire at month's end, paralyzed by a debate over the proper balance between civil liberties and national security. In an after-midnight vote, the Senate turned back a House-passed bill that would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of private telephone records, the only legislation that offered a smooth transition ahead of a June 1 deadline.... That led Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to recall senators to the Capitol a day earlier than planned, on May 31, for a rare Sunday session hours ahead of the deadline." ...

... Alan Rusbridger, et al., of the Guardian: In an interview with the Guardian, "Edward Snowden has hailed landmark shifts in Congress and the US courts on NSA surveillance but cautioned that much more needs to be done to restore the balance in favour of privacy. He also warned this was only the beginning of reform of the NSA, saying there are still many bulk collection programmes which are 'even more intrusive', but expressed hope that the Senate would act to curb the NSA, saying retention of the status quo is untenable."

Danielle Ivory, et al., of the New York Times: "Justice Department investigators have identified criminal wrongdoing in General Motors' failure to disclose a defect tied to at least 104 deaths, and are negotiating what is expected to be a record penalty, according to people briefed on the inquiry.... Former G.M. employees, some of whom were dismissed last year, are under investigation as well and could face criminal charges."

Deborah Sontag of the New York Times: "In what appeared to be a reversal of his predecessor's position, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas wrote to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch last week to assure her that his state intended to abide by national standards to prevent, detect and respond to prison rape 'wherever feasible.'... But the Justice Department said late Thursday that it had rejected his assurance. Texas, which has a high rate of reported sexual abuse against inmates, is expected to be financially penalized for a second straight year for failing to follow the procedures that the federal government has established to document progress in eliminating prison rape." CW: No doubt Lynch's actions are part of the federal government's plan to declare martial law in Texas. She'll probably release a bunch of alleged rape victims & have them do their Count of Monte Cristo thing under all the Texas WalMarts.

Dana Milbank: "After more than three decades of income growth for the wealthiest 10 percent and stagnation for everybody else, the top 3 percent now has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.... An International Monetary Fund study released in March found that the decline in union membership has been responsible for half of the rise in the share of income going to the top 10 percent.... Straws in the wind suggest a building backlash."

CW: I do not know how I missed it, but last week Frank Rich wrote a marvelous feature piece on race riots. There are few writers of English prose who can so seamlessly wrap their personal stories into the broader cultural context (without making the piece All About Me). ...

     ... The photo that accompanies Rich's essay is striking. Looking at it, I thought, "This photographer should get a Pulitzer." Then I noticed that the credit went to someone named Devin Allen, with no affiliated media outfit designated. So I looked up Allen. Here's another post on Allen. (Its author, Charise Frazier, & her copywriter should look up the meaning of "notoriety.") And another. I hope most of those media who used Allen's photos have paid him handsomely.

White House: "In this week's address, the President commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country":

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dean Baker in FAIR: "In a Washington Post column (5/22/15), Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and Third Way president Jonathan Cowan took a swipe at the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in arguing for a set of ill-defined centrist proposals.... There is much about their piece that is wrong or misleading ... but the best part is in the last paragraph, where they tell readers, 'Nine years ago, Borders Books had more than 1,000 stores and more than 35,000 employees. Four years ago, it liquidated. Those stores ... closed because technology brought us Amazon and the Kindle.' Actually, Border Books did close in large part because the economic system is rigged against ordinary Americans. One of the main reasons Amazon has been able to grow as rapidly as it did is that Amazon has not been required to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors in most states for most of its existence." CW: Three things: (1) Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who started & owns Amazon, also owns the Washington Post, which is the point of Baker's piece; (2) likely Borders wasn't the slavedriver that Amazon is;* & (3) Jack Markell has to be one of the dumbest elected Democrats in the country. Thanks to Bonita for the lead.

     ...* There are other reasons Borders failed, of course, & one of those reasons is its partnership with Amazon.

Presidential Race

CW: As usual, our own Commentariat was excellent yesterday. I particularly appreciated Akhilleus's putting the Clintons' fortune into context. As he noted, in the course of some 16 months, the accumulated earnings of all three Clintons amounted to "a third of what Robert Downey, Jr. made in a few months for making 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'." To extend Akhiilleus's commentary, I would ask: Is a former President earns $250K for a speech in which he tries to talk some fat cats & lesser richy-riches into forking over some of their millions to, say, reduce mortality rates in parts of Africa, doing pretty much the same as an oil company exec taking in a multi-million-dollar salary so he can buy a yacht, etc. -- while his company begrudgingly pays a pittance in fines for multiple safety violations until it ends up polluting the beaches, the wetlands & the oceans? And if Bill Clinton is so smart, why can't he out-earn a guy who "was a lot more interesting when he was on drugs"? ...

... (Less appreciated: Akhilleus's extensive commentary on Josh Dugger, although Akhilleus did manage to tie that repulsive, repeat child-molester to the leading lights of the Republican party, just to show you how dim those lights are. Anyhow, unless one of those dim bulbs comments on the Dugger boy, I'm leaving staying clear of him. And, no, I don't really mind Akhilleus's post on a sanctimonious punk who would tell most Reality Chex readers we were going to hell.)

Gail Collins: August 6 is "the [70th] anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the date of the first Republican presidential debate." Collins notes that not all of 2,376 candidates will make the cut, meaning there may be no Carly Fiorina or Rick Santorum.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Henry McDonald of the Guardian: "Voters in Ireland appear to have voted strongly in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in the republic's referendum, the country's equality minister said on Saturday shortly, after counting began. 'I think it's won. I've seen bellwether boxes open, middle-of-the road areas who wouldn't necessarily be liberal and they are resoundingly voting yes,' equality minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin told Reuters at the main count centre in Dublin." ...

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States and China on Friday escalated their dispute over contested territory in the South China Sea, after the Chinese repeatedly ordered an American military surveillance plane to abandon flights over areas where China has been building artificial islands. The continued American surveillance flights in areas where China is creating new islands in the South China Sea are intended to challenge the Chinese government's claims of expanded territorial sovereignty. Further raising the challenge, Pentagon officials said they were discussing sending warships into waters that the United States asserts are international and open to passage, but that China says are within its zone of control."

Guardian: "An inflatable dam in drought-stricken California was damaged on Thursday, causing the loss of nearly 50,000,000 gallons (190m litres) of water. Police said vandals caused 'irreversible damage' to the inflatable dam in Fremont, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The vandalism caused water meant for local residents to instead flow into San Francisco bay."

Washington Post: "The man convicted in the 2001 killing of federal intern Chandra Levy is likely to get a new trial after prosecutors on Friday dropped their long-standing opposition to defense efforts to have a new jury hear the case. Since 2013, attorneys for Ingmar Guandique, 34, have argued that a key witness in the 2010 trial had lied when he testified that Guandique, his onetime cellmate, confessed to him that he killed Levy."

The Commentariat -- May 22, 2015

Internal links removed.

Paul Kane & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Republicans and a small band of Democrats rescued President Obama's trade agenda from the brink of failure Thursday, clearing a key hurdle in the Senate but leaving the final outcome in doubt. Supporters must still navigate a set of tricky-but-popular proposals that could torpedo the legislation's chances, and its fate in the House remains a tossup because Obama faces entrenched opposition from his own party." ...

... Paul Krugman: "I don't know why the president has chosen to make the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership such a policy priority.... Reasonable, well-intentioned people have serious questions about what's going on. And I would have expected a good-faith effort to answer those questions.... Instead, the selling of the 12-nation Pacific Rim pact has the feel of a snow job. Officials have evaded the main concerns about the content of a potential deal; they've belittled and dismissed the critics; and they've made blithe assurances that turn out not to be true.... The main thrust of the proposed deal involves strengthening intellectual property rights -- things like drug patents and movie copyrights -- and changing the way companies and countries settle disputes. And it's by no means clear that either of those changes are good for America.... The fact that the administration evidently doesn't feel that it can make an honest case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership suggests that this isn't a deal we should support."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is expected in the coming days to announce a major clean water regulation that would restore the federal government's authority to limit pollution in the nation's rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. Environmentalists have praised the new rule, calling it an important step that would lead to significantly cleaner natural bodies of water and healthier drinking water. But it has attracted fierce opposition from several business interests, including farmers, property developers, fertilizer and pesticide makers, oil and gas producers and a national association of golf course owners. Opponents contend that the rule would stifle economic growth and intrude on property owners' rights."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "With the federal government's bulk collection of phone records set to expire in June, senators remained deeply divided on Thursday over whether to extend the program temporarily or accept significant changes that the House overwhelmingly approved last week."

Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic: "'Look, 20 years from now, I'm still going to be around, God willing. If Iran has a nuclear weapon, it's my name on this,' [President Obama] said [to Goldberg during a interview], referring to the apparently almost-finished nuclear agreement between Iran and a group of world powers led by the United States. 'I think it's fair to say that in addition to our profound national-security interests, I have a personal interest in locking this down.'..." Read the whole post, which covers a lot of Middle East territory.

Eric Licthblau & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Karl "Rove's Crossroads PAC is no longer [the' GOP's 'big dog.'... The nonprofit arm of Crossroads is facing an Internal Revenue Service review that could eviscerate its fund-raising. Data projects nurtured by Mr. Rove are being supplanted in Republican circles by a more successful initiative funded by the Koch political network, which has leapfrogged the Crossroads organizations in size and reach. And the group faces intense competition for donors from a new wave of 'super PACs' that are being set up by backers of the leading Republican candidates for president, who are unwilling to defer to Mr. Rove's authority or cede strategic and fund-raising dominance to the organizations he helped start."

Greg Sargent: If the Supreme Court knocks out the Medicaid subsidy for states without their own exchanges, "Republicans do have a plan of sorts.... [They] may try to pass a temporary patch for the subsidies, packaged with something like the repeal of the individual mandate, in hopes of drawing a presidential veto -- so Republicans can then try to blame Obama for failing to fix the problem. Today, the Wall Street Journal editorial page helpfully confirms that this idea is very much in circulation, urging Republicans to carry out this strategy. The editorial suggests Republicans rally behind plans such as the one offered by GOP Senator Ron Johnson, which would temporarily grant subsidies to those who lose them." ...

... Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "A number of states are quietly considering merging their healthcare exchanges under ObamaCare amid big questions about their cost and viability. Many of the 13 state-run ObamaCare exchanges are worried about how they'll survive once federal dollars supporting them run dry next year. Others are contemplating creating multi-state exchanges as a contingency plan for a looming Supreme Court ruling expected next month that could prevent people from getting subsidies to buy ObamaCare on the federal exchange."

Charles Pierce: "... anyone who wonders why Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina is an odious presence in our politics should have caught his act this week. The House Judiciary Committee was holding hearings concerning the current state of America's police as regards their relationship with communities of color.... Gowdy's questioning [of a witness] was one prolonged and demagogic sneer, listing off the names of police officers who have died in the line, and of African Americans who were killed by other African Americans.... Gowdy played every old and familiar tune on the House organ."

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Robert M. Gates, the president of the Boy Scouts of America and former secretary of defense, called on Thursday to end the Scouts' ban on gay adult leaders, warning the group's executives that 'we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.' Speaking at the Boy Scouts' annual national meeting in Atlanta, Mr. Gates said cascading events -- including potential employment discrimination lawsuits and the impending Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, as well as mounting internal dissent over the exclusionary policy -- had led him to conclude that the current rules 'cannot be sustained.'"

Ian Black of the Guardian: "Islamic State's victories in Palmyra and Ramadi have been painful blows for the US-led coalition in both Syria and Iraq respectively, underlining the flaws in a strategy that has been widely criticised as both wrong-headed and half-hearted." ...

... Juan Cole: "... the whole debate about 'who lost Ramadi?' assumes facts not in evidence, i.e. that Ramadi has ever been 'pacified' or somehow a United States protectorate, sort of like Guam or Puerto Rico.... So it completely escapes me why John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Boehner or Tom Cotton (who helped personally with the berlinization of Iraq) think that if only US troops had remained in country after 2011, the people of Ramadi would have been delirious with joy and avoided throwing in with radical anti-imperialist forces." ...

... Gene Robinson: "President Obama's critics are missing the point.... The simple truth is that if Iraqis will not join together to fight for a united and peaceful country, there will be continuing conflict and chaos that potentially threaten American interests. We should be debating how best to contain and minimize the threat. Further escalating the U.S. military role, I would argue, will almost surely lead to a quagmire that makes us no more secure. If the choice is go big or go home, we should pick the latter." ...

... See also Jeffrey Goldberg's interview of President Obama, linked above. ...

... if the Iraqis themselves are not willing or capable to arrive at the political accommodations necessary to govern, if they are not willing to fight for the security of their country, we cannot do that for them. -- President Obama, in the Goldberg interview

... Steve Benen: "Last week, Republicans were heavily invested in a specific talking point: don't blame George W. Bush for the disastrous war in Iraq, blame the intelligence community. This week, this has clearly been replaced with a full-throated replacement talking point: don't blame George W. Bush or the intelligence community, blame President Obama."

Charles Pierce recommends this "Frontline" documentary on the CIA torture program.

Presidential Race

Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The Clinton Foundation reported Thursday that it has received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed payments from major corporations, universities, foreign sources and other groups. The disclosure came as the foundation faced questions over whether it fully complied with a 2008 ethics agreement to reveal its donors and whether any of its funding sources present conflicts of interest for Hillary Rodham Clinton as she begins her presidential campaign. The money was paid as fees for speeches by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. Foundation officials said the funds were tallied internally as 'revenue' rather than donations, which is why they had not been included in the public listings of its contributors published as part of the 2008 agreement." CW: As a slap-dash, after-the-fact, keeper of my own financial records, I appear to be overqualified to serve as the Clinton Foundation's accountant. ...

... Friends of Bigwigs. Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "Republican complaints about Clinton's wealth and connections are presumably intended to turn the left wing of the Democratic Party against her. But in November 2016 the Republican candidate for president will almost certainly be a man who will have not only accepted hundreds of millions from 'big wigs' -- just as Clinton will have -- but who will also have promised, in an age of burgeoning plutocracy and rising inequality, to engineer a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich to provide those big wigs with a windfall on their political investment.... But Clinton's policy platform ... will not, for example, take money out of middle-class voters' paychecks, undermine their health insurance, ramp up carbon pollution in their air or leave their children with additional trillions in national debt to finance better living for billionaires.... The 2016 Republican candidates are vastly superior to those of 2012.... It's unclear how much the higher quality of candidates will matter, however, because the party is very much the same. Its donors and activists continue to make demands -- more tax cuts! never compromise! -- that no rational, public-spirited candidate for national office should ever honor."

Cheap Little Rich Girl. Michelle Conlin of Reuters: "Twelve of about 30 people who worked on [Carly] Fiorina's failed 2010 California Senate campaign, most speaking out for the first time, told Reuters they would not work for her again.... The reason: for more than four years, Fiorina - who has an estimated net worth of up to $120 million - didn't pay them.... 'I'd rather go to Iraq than work for Carly Fiorina again,' said one high-level former campaign staffer...."

Beyond the Beltway

Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun: "Baltimore grand jury returned indictments against the six officers charged earlier this month in the in-custody death of Freddie Gray, State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby announced Thursday. Prosecutors presented evidence to the grand jury over the course of two weeks, Mosby said. Reckless endangerment charges were added against all six officers, while false imprisonment charges against three were removed. The remaining charges are largely the same ones her office filed May 1, following an independent investigation."

Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post shows just how bad Kansas's latest punative poor law is for poor families & adds, "... the new provision limiting what the poor can do with their debit cards is causing particular problems for Kansas because it could conflict with federal rules that appear to require that states provide beneficiaries with 'adequate access' to their benefits, putting more than $100 million in funding for the program in jeopardy." CW: Think about this: the law limits beneficiaries from withdrawing more than $25/day from their debit cards, but ATMs dole out cash only in $20 increments, plus there's a fee. In addition, the poor person has to get herself to an ATM, & there may not be one in her neighborhood. And what about the kids? I guess she'll have to pay a babysitter while she walks to an ATM half-an-hour away? So $18 minus sitter fees. Try paying the rent with that.

Way Beyond

Henry McDonald of the Guardian: "Polls have opened in Ireland, where voters are making history as the republic becomes the first nation to ask its electorate to legalise gay marriage. More than 3m voters have been invited to cast ballots in Ireland's 43 constituencies, with the result to follow on Saturday. Polling stations opened at 7am BST and they close at 10pm." ...

... Douglas Dalby of the New York Times: "In 1993, Ireland was among the last countries in the Western World to decriminalize homosexuality. Some 22 years later, it could become the first to legalize same-sex marriages by popular vote.... A vote in favor is far from assured."