The Commentariat -- June 4, 2015

All internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

They're Just Gonna Do It Anyway. Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of Americans' international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad -- including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show. The Justice Department allowed the agency to monitor only addresses and 'cybersignatures' -- patterns associated with computer intrusions -- that it could tie to foreign governments. But the documents also note that the N.S.A. sought to target hackers even when it could not establish any links to foreign powers. The disclosures, based on documents provided by Edward J. Snowden ... and shared with The New York Times and ProPublica, come at a time of unprecedented cyberattacks on American financial institutions, businesses and government agencies, but also of greater scrutiny of secret legal justifications for broader government surveillance." ...

... Eric Tucker of the AP: "The growing use of encrypted communications and private messaging by supporters of the Islamic State group is complicating efforts to monitor terror suspects and extremists, U.S. law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Appearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, the officials said that even as thousands of Islamic State group followers around the world share public communications on Twitter, some are exploiting social media platforms that allow them to shield their messages from law enforcement."

Peggy Fikac of the Houston Chronicle: "Former Gov. Rick Perry announced for president Thursday with a promise to 'restore hope' to Americans left behind by the economy at home and unsettled by chaos abroad. 'We have the power to make things new again, to project America's strength again, and to get our economy going again,' he said at a small airport hangar in the Dallas area, backed by veterans against a backdrop formed by a C-130 plane of the type he flew while in the Ai Force. 'And that is exactly why today I am running for the presidency of the United States of Americas.'" CW: Bigger news: got through speech without once saying "oops." I still think his chances would be better running for president of the Republic of Texas.

Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice president who was among 14 people indicted by a United States grand jury as part of an inquiry into corruption in world soccer, says he knows why the organization's president, Sepp Blatter, announced plans to step down from soccer's governing body.... Mr. Warner, who said he feared for his own life, also said he had evidence linking FIFA to his country's 2010 election.... Mr. Warner's sons, Daryan and Daryll, are also cooperating with the authorities, having secretly pleaded guilty in 2013 after they tried to deposit more than $600,000 in nearly two dozen United States bank accounts in an attempt to avoid detection. During a rambling and sometimes incoherent seven-minute television address..., [which was] a paid political advertisement, he said he had reams of documents, including copies of checks, linking Mr. Blatter and other senior FIFA officials to an effort to manipulate a 2010 election in Trinidad and Tobago." ...

... AP: "Military intelligence officers have raided the headquarters of the Venezuelan Football Federation amid the spiraling FIFA scandal. Venezuela's public prosecutor's office said agents raided the Venezuelan organization's offices Wednesday to gather evidence for a criminal investigation. The organization's former head, Rafael Esquivel, was detained in Switzerland last week along with six other FIFA officials accused of taking bribes." ...

... The Guardian has a liveblog of developing FIFA stories.

*****

Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reports an excellent story about the writing of President Obama's speech delivered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march, a speech in which the President sought to define his concept of "American exceptionalism." BTW, Republicans presidential candidates are too ignorant & bellicose to understand it. Which matters. Here's the speech:

... If we're lucky, this is what the kids will be studying in tomorrow's history classes.

Patriot Act, Ctd. Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The Obama administration intends to use part of a law banning the bulk collection of US phone records to temporarily restart the bulk collection of US phone records. US officials confirmed to the Guardian that in the coming days they will ask a secret surveillance court to revive the program -- deemed illegal by a federal appeals court -- all in the name of 'transitioning' the domestic surveillance effort to the telephone companies that generate the so-called 'call detail records' the government seeks to access." ...

Michael Shear of the New York Times puts the focus on President Obama: "Now, after successfully badgering Congress into reauthorizing the program, with new safeguards the president says will protect privacy, Mr. Obama has left little question that he owns it.... 'The reforms that have now been enacted are exactly the reforms the president called for over a year and a half ago,' said Lisa Monaco, the president's top counterterrorism adviser. She called the bill the product of a 'robust public debate' and said the White House was 'gratified that the Senate finally passed it.' The president is trying to balance national security and civil liberties to put into practice the kind of equilibrium he has talked about since he was in the Senate, when he expressed support for surveillance programs but also vowed to rein in what he called government overreach."

Dana Milbank: "Here's a case study in rapid radicalization. Just three years ago, the House voted overwhelmingly to extend the charter of the Export-Import Bank and to expand its business of loaning money to boost American exports. Among Republicans, 147 voted yes and 93 voted no. Nothing much has changed since then.... Yet now Republicans say a majority of the caucus wants to abolish the bank, and the Republican Study Committee -- representing 170 House conservatives -- has come out against renewing the charter. Opponents in both the House and Senate have so far succeeded in keeping the renewal from coming up for votes.... There's little chance the rebellion will kill the bank permanently, but there's a real chance the bank will close temporarily."

American "Justice," Ctd. Radley Balko of the Washington Post: "Barring last-minute interference from the U.S. Supreme Court, Lester Bower will soon be dead. And as Jordan Smith at the Intercept reports, [also linked on the Commentariat a few days ago] that would be a travesty of justice. His story is everything that's wrong with the death penalty in America." ...

     ... Update. Meghan Keneally & Ben Candea of ABC News: "Lester Bower Jr. received a lethal dose of pentobarbital for killing four people in an airplane hangar on a ranch about 60 miles from Dalla in 1983. He was executed hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from his lawyers."

Jess Bidgood &Dave Phillips of the New York Times: "Investigators had been watching Usaamah Abdullah Rahim long enough to know about his avid interest in Islamic State militants, but when they overheard him talking on a cellphone about beheading Massachusetts police officers, they moved in, leading to a confrontation Tuesday morning outside a CVS here that left Mr. Rahim dead, and once again raised alarms about the influence of foreign extremists on homegrown radicals." ...

... Charles Pierce: "But the actual story continues to be extremely murky."

Annals of Twitter "Journalism." J. K. Trotter of Gawker: "A Twitter spokesperson just provided [a] statement to Gawker regarding the apparent suspension of Politwoops' access to Twitter's developer API, which enabled the Sunlight Foundation-funded site to track tweets deleted by hundreds of politicians. Summarized: Politwoops is no more." ...

... CW: Twitter is mostly stupid, but this is an exceptionally stupid policy. While it's fine to allow ordinary people to delete their Tweets, the law treats politicians & other public figures differently -- and so should Twitter. The Sunlight Foundation is a boon to our right-to-know. And we have a right to know, for instance, when Scott Brown is tweeting drunk. Which is not illegal. Even in Massachusetts.

Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "Harvard University announced its largest single gift ever Wednesday, a $400 million donation from alumnus and hedge-fund billionaire John A. Paulson to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Not everyone was impressed, some because of Harvard's substantial endowment, others because of the way Paulson became so wealthy, in part, by betting against the overinflated housing market nearly a decade ago. On social media, one commenter turned up his nose at money 'made betting your kids would be homeless.'"

Presidential Race

Brian Naylor of NPR: "Lincoln Chafee has been a Republican U.S. senator and an independent governor and now is taking a shot at the presidency, as a Democrat. Chafee announced his bid in a speech in Arlington, Va., at George Mason University on Wednesday. In his speech, Chafee said, 'I enjoy challenges, and certainly we have many facing America. Today I'm formally entering the race for the Democratic nomination for president.' During his speech, Chafee highlighted his strong opposition to military intervention in the Middle East, saying, 'we have to find a way to wage peace.'" ...

... Gerry Mullany of the New York Times outlines Chafee's major policy positions. ...

... Jaime Fuller of New York: "New presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee [is] still kilometers behind opponents despite vow to fight for the metric system." ...

... Paul Waldman: "That makes three presidential contenders whose more accomplished fathers served in the U.S. Congress."

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "A once-sleepy Democratic presidential primary contest is fast coming alive as Hillary Rodham Clinton's poll numbers fall and a diverse array of long-shot opponents step forward to challenge her. The recent developments mark a dramatic evolution in the 2016 sweepstakes, which until now has been shaped by the large assortment of hopefuls on the Republican side, where there is no front-runner." CW: Sounds to me like a bit of news-industry wishful thinking, but I'm not that good at predicting the future. ...

... Maggie Haberman & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Democrats allied with Hillary Rodham Clinton are mounting a nationwide legal battle 17 months before the 2016 presidential election, seeking to roll back Republican-enacted restrictions on voter access that Democrats say could, if unchallenged, prove decisive in a close campaign. The court fights began last month with lawsuits filed in Ohio and Wisconsin, presidential battleground states whose governors are likely to run for the Republican nomination themselves. Now, Democrats are attacking a host of measures, including voter identification requirements that they consider onerous, time restrictions imposed on early voting that they say could make it difficult to cast ballots the weekend before Election Day, and rules that could nullify ballots cast in the wrong precinct.... A similar lawsuit was begun last year in North Carolina. Other potential fronts in the pre-emptive legal offensive, Democrats say, could soon be opened in Georgia, Nevada and the increasingly critical presidential proving ground of Virginia. Almost all of those states have growing African-American or Hispanic populations...." ...

... Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to call for an early voting period of at least 20 days in every state. Clinton will call for that standard in remarks Thursday in Texas about voting rights, her campaign said. She will also criticize what her campaign calls deliberate restrictions on voting in several states, including Texas." ...

... Thanks for the Donation, You Scoundrels. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: A "donation from the Qatari committee serves as the latest example of the willingness of the Clinton Foundation to accept big-dollar contributions from controversial and, sometimes, politically problematic sources. Donors have included foreign governments, Wall Street banks and some of the world's richest business tycoons.... While a number of controversial donations came during the years that Bill Clinton headed the organization alone, the Qatari committee's involvement in CGI came in the months after Hillary Clinton stepped down as secretary of state and joined the foundation's board."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, [former Texas Gov. Rick] Perry made his candidacy [for president] official on his official Web site. 'I am running for president because I know our country's best days are ahead of us,' said a message on the site, which included a video that stressed his ability to bridge political divides in Washington. The post came hours before Perry was scheduled to announce his plans for 2016 at an airplane hangar in [Addison, a] northern suburb of Dallas.... He is ... mired in low single digits in early polls, lightly regarded by many of his rivals, ignored or dismissed by many in the media and struggling for the kind of attention that a politician who served 14 years as chief executive of one of the nation&'s most populous states might normally command."

Nick Gass of Politico: "Jeb Bush will officially enter the presidential race on June 15 in Miami, nearly six months after announcing that he was 'actively' exploring running for the Republican nomination. In a tweet sent Thursday morning, Bush teases 'Coming soon,' linking to jebannouncement.com, which features a 06.15.15 date and says it was paid for by 'Jeb 2016, Inc.'" ...

... Lyndsey Layton & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Starting next school year, any parent in Nevada can pull a child from the state's public schools and take tax dollars with them, giving families the option to use public money to pay for private or parochial school or even for home schooling. The new law, which the state's Republican-controlled legislature passed with help from the education foundation created by former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R), is a breakthrough for conservatives, who call it the ultimate in school choice.... Democrats, teachers unions, public school superintendents and administrators are alarmed, saying that the Nevada law to provide private school vouchers is the first step toward dismantling the nation's public schools." ...

     ... CW: If you can't think of any reason that Jeb Bush wouldn't make a swell president, herein is the one. He's been at this campaign to decimate public schools (with help from ALEC), & making money on it, for a long while.

Manu Raju of Politico: "After Rand Paul said GOP defense hawks had 'created' ISIS, he told Sean Hannity: 'I think I could have stated it better.' When he claimed some of his adversaries were 'secretly' hoping for a terrorist attack so they could blame him for shutting down the PATRIOT Act, the next day he admitted that 'hyperbole' got the better of him 'in the heat of battle.' And when Paul quipped that he was 'glad' his train didn't stop in Baltimore in the wake of riots there, he later offered 'regret' that his comments were 'misinterpreted.' As Paul has sought to stand out from the clustered GOP presidential field, he's finding that his freewheeling, off-the-cuff speaking style can cut both ways."

George Will, the great conservative intellectual whose wife Mari works for the great conservative intellectual Scott Walker, complains that Republicans are socialists like Bernie Sanders, too, ever redistributing wealth from deserving business owners to us "entitled" government moochers." Will might be the only person in the U.S. who is upset that the Hoover Dam & the dam at Muscle Shoals, Alabama (part of the Tennessee Valley Authority), are owned by the federal government. ...

... Dr. Wanker Understands the Concerns of Victims of Rape & Incest. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Monday that he'd be willing to sign a 20-week abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest, adding that women were mostly concerned about those issues 'in the initial months' of pregnancy, television station reported. 'I mean, I think for most people who are concerned about that, it's in the initial months where they're most concerned about it,' Walker said of pregnancies caused by rape and incest."

     ... CW: I don't know precisely what the real-life experience of being raped is like, but it seems highly likely that young victims of rape & incest would delay coming forward (a) out of fear, (b) out of shame, & (b) out of ignorance -- they might not know they're pregnant. I'd love to know the basis for Dr. Wanker's diagnosis. Or is it possible he's just a crass, pandering prick? Also, too, I wonder if George Will approves of government's determining women's personal healthcare needs. Evidently the answer is yes. (Because promiscuity & states' rights.)

Politicians Say the Damndest Things. Nick Gass of Politico: "Lindsey Graham says Hillary Clinton is avoiding media questions on the campaign trail" to the extent that "it's easier to talk to the North Korean guy than it is her." CW: According to Politico's headline, "Lindsey Graham compares Hillary Clinton to Kim Jong Un." Nah, he didn't. Besides, it was a joke.

Beyond the Beltway

Brownback the Redistributor. Washington Post Editors: Kansas Gov. "Sam Brownback (R) proposed raising taxes over the weekend.... He didn't roll back his steep cuts to income and business taxes, instead proposing an increase in the sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.65 percent.... The way Mr. Brownback originally cut business taxes provided 'an incentive to game the tax system without doing anything productive for the economy,' the Tax Foundation's Joseph Henchman found. Raising revenue by reversing this distortionary policy would seem to be the obvious first step toward fixing the budget.... Even if that weren't the case, it is very hard to run a modern government on sales taxes without also imposing a heavy burden on low- and middle-income people."

New York Times: "The sealed papers from the soccer official Chuck Blazer's criminal case were released on Wednesday. Blazer pleaded guilty in 2013 to charges that included racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and income tax evasion." ...

... Here's the related Times story, by Stephanie Clifford. ...

... Also, Blazer had a $6,000/month Trump Tower apartment for his cats, which he rarely visited. CW: Could explain where the Donald got his orange-tabby comb-over.

CW: Love the headline: "Man raises eyebrows carrying rifle through Atlanta Airport." It is legal to carry a rifle in the Atlanta Airport (because what could possibly go wrong?), but maybe it is illegal to raise your eyebrows while carrying a gun through ATL.

CW: No, I am not covering the Duggars. If you want to know the latest, just go to any site that at least occasionally covers news or gossip.

Way Beyond

Bank Robbers in Fine Suits. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "Relative to the modest size of Moldova's economy, the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars from three lenders, now insolvent, could rank among the world's biggest bank thefts." ...

... CW: This is not only as fascinating story, it is both a cautionary tale & a reminder of how our own lending institutions have been run for a long time. Evidently, Moldova is controlled by a few crooked oligarchs who use banking schemes & political bribes to enrich themselves, but our own oligarchs are richer, more numerous & just as crooked. The Modovan banks' sleights of hand may constitute a big bank theft, but banks based in or operating in the U.S. shared a haul that dwarfs the Moldovan take. Our bankers just don't have to resort to burned-out cars. They've had Tim Geithner, Barack Obama & a host of other politicians to protect them & "stand between them & the pitchforks." Imagine where we'd be if McCain had won in 2008 & put some Phil Gramm crony into the top job at the Fed.

News Lede

Washington Post: "A Washington judge on Thursday granted a new trial to the man convicted of killing federal intern Chandra Levy in 2001, after prosecutors dropped their opposition to a defense request to retry the case."

The Commentariat -- June 3, 2015

All internal links removed.

Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In a remarkable reversal of national security policy formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Senate voted on Tuesday to curtail the federal government's sweeping surveillance of American phone records, sending the legislation to President Obama's desk for his signature. The passage of the measure, achieved after a vigorous debate on the Senate floor, will lead to the reinstatement of government surveillance efforts that were blacked out on Monday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, blocked their extension. The vote was a rebuke to Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, as lawmakers beat back a series of amendments that he sought that would have rolled back proposed controls on government spying.... The vote was held after members of the House starkly warned that they would not accept any changes to the law, setting off an unusual stalemate between House Speaker John A. Boehner and Mr. McConnell." ...

     ... New Lede (9:00 pm ET Tuesday): "In a significant scaling back of national security policy formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Senate on Tuesday approved legislation curtailing the federal government's sweeping surveillance of American phone records, and President Obama signed the measure hours later.' ...

... As Dana Milbank points out in his column, linked under Presidential Race, both McConnell & Paul "came out losers. Paul, an opponent of the Patriot Act, not only failed in his effort to block the reauthorization, but he antagonized his colleagues so much that they refused to take up his (reasonable) amendments. McConnell, a fan of the original Patriot Act, tried to outmaneuver Paul by pushing the vote to the deadline, but this miscalculation caused the Patriot Act to lapse, and McConnell failed in his bid to strengthen the new legislation." ...

Glad the Senate finally passed the USA Freedom Act. It protects civil liberties and our national security. I'll sign it as soon as I get it. -- @POTUS

... Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "The US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would end the bulk collection of millions of Americans' phone records, the most significant surveillance reform for decades and a direct result of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations to the Guardian two years ago." ...

... Tuesday Afternoon. Mike DeBonis & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Senate advanced a sweeping remake of U.S. surveillance powers Tuesday, two days after an internal split among Republicans caused the legal authority for key counterterrorism programs to temporarily expire. By a vote of 83 to 14, the measure cleared a crucial procedural hurdle, as senators acted to close debate on the USA Freedom Act, a House-passed bill that would end the National Security Agency's practice of collecting troves of call data from telephone companies.... Depending on the amendment votes and procedural maneuvers, the bill could be signed into law as soon as Tuesday night." (Also linked yesterday.)

The TSA as Audience-Participation Kabuki Theater. David Graham of the Atlantic: "The TSA doesn't work and never has.... TSA's failure to detect undercover agents might seem like familiar news, since it's a part of a pattern. Reports about the TSA failing to find planted weapons and the like pop up every few years."

Fear of the Supremes. Louise Radnofsky & Stephanie Armour of the Wall Street Journal: "Officials from states across the nation flew to Chicago in early May for a secret 24-hour meeting to discuss their options if the Supreme Court rules they have to operate their own exchanges in order for residents to get health-insurance subsidies." CW: You'll probably have to access this article via Google. Starting here worked for me. ...

... The Kaiser Foundation has a state-by-state map of how many people would lose subsidies if the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell prevail & how much federal money is at stake for people in these states. Via Greg Sargent, who writes, "... the greatest numbers of people who stand to lose subsidies live in states that are key presidential battlegrounds and home to some of the most contested Senate races of the cycle."

Jon Swaine & Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "A plan to force all American law enforcement agencies to report killings by their officers was unveiled by US senators on Tuesday, a day after the Guardian published an investigation into the fatal use of force by police. Senators Barbara Boxer [D] of California and Cory Booker [D] of New Jersey proposed legislation that would demand all states submit reports to the US Department of Justice that they said would bring 'transparency and accountability to law enforcement agencies nationwide'."

Jack Gillum, et al., of the AP: "Scores of low-flying planes circling American cities are part of a civilian air force operated by the FBI and obscured behind fictitious companies, The Associated Press has learned. The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights in 11 states over a 30-day period since late April, orbiting both major cities and rural areas.... Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they're not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers and gets phones to reveal basic subscriber information, is used in only limited situations." ...

... Digby: "Well, ok then. Their identity is hidden behind front companies, they don't bother with warrants and they only use the information for really, really important stuff to catch real criminals."

Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "At least one member of Congress was aware that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) allegedly sexually molested a male former student prior to his time in Congress. Relatively early on during Hastert's speakership, Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) was approached with news about the alleged abuse, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation that took place with Watt.... According to the source, the person who approached Watt was an intermediary for the family of the abuse victim and knew the North Carolina congressman informally.... After The Huffington Post first reported the claims on Tuesday, Watt sent a statement saying that he had, in fact, heard about allegations against Hastert during the early days of his speakership. But he said the information did not appear either reliable or serious enough to prompt action."

Eesha Pandit in Salon: In EEOC v. Abercrombie, "Why would [Justice] Scalia, such a noted opponent of civil rights protections, leverage the Civil Rights Act which he has challenged in many of the opinions he's penned? In fact, this kind of ruling is of a piece with other recent decisions within the Roberts Court, in which the conservative judges are more open to civil rights claims in which religious discrimination is alleged.... Particularly interesting here is the burden of protection: If employers like Abercrombie are required to make accommodations for a person's religious expression, then how can they be allowed to dictate their employee's access to health care (like birth control) at the behest of the employer's religious beliefs? How might Justice Scalia, who notes that it was Abercrombie's responsibility to ensure that Samantha Elauf could practice her religious expression, find that it was acceptable for Hobby Lobby's owners to foist their values on employees?"

Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times: "Elon Musk says his companies don't need the estimated $4.9 billion they enjoy in government support, but the money will help them move faster to transform the dirty business of energy. 'If I cared about subsidies, I would have entered the oil and gas industry,' said Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and the chairman of SolarCity. Musk's remarks came in response to a Times story detailing his corporate strategy of incubating high-risk, high-tech companies with government money — estimating the total received or pledged so far at $4.9 billion, a figure Musk did not dispute." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sam Borden, et al., of the New York Times: "Sepp Blatter ... said Tuesday that he would resign his [presidency of FIFA] as law enforcement officials confirmed that he was a focus of a federal corruption investigation. Mr. Blatter had for days tried to distance himself from the controversy, but several United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Blatter they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization." CW: No surprise here. ...

... (Tuesday Afternoon.) Sam Borden: "Sepp Blatter said Tuesday that he would resign from the presidency of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, in the wake of a corruption inquiry, an extraordinary turn just four days after he was re-elected and defiantly insisted that he was blameless and committed to cleaning up the organization. Mr. Blatter, 79, said he would ask FIFA to schedule a new election for his replacement as soon as possible. The next FIFA congress is scheduled to meet in May 2016, but he acknowledged that the organization could not wait that long for new leadership given the current situation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Today, the Clinton Foundation is unlike anything else in the history of the nation and, perhaps, the world: It is a global philanthropic empire run by a former U.S. president and closely affiliated with a potential future president, with the audacious goal of solving some of the world's most vexing problems by bringing together the wealthiest, glitziest and most powerful people from every part of the planet." The writers take a deep dive into history & doings of the foundation. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... unlike the scandal-seeking missile that is the New York Times coverage of All Things Hillary, the WaPo take concedes that the Clinton Foundation's genesis is almost entirely altruistic, and that whatever benefits donors or the Clintons derived from its efforts were a byproduct of the unique situation of two people with a globally significant past and (perhaps) future." ...

... James Rosen of Fox "News": "Over a five-year span, senior officials at the National Archives and Records Administrations (NARA) voiced growing alarm about Hillary Clinton's record-keeping practices as secretary of state, according to internal documents obtained by Fox News." CW: Despite the source, this story would seem to be credible. Rosen cites specific NARA e-mails obtained via an FIOA request. ...

... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Chris Hughes, the publisher of The New Republic, and his husband, Sean Eldridge, will hold a fund-raiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, two people briefed on the invitation said. The event will be held on June 30 at the couple's lower Manhattan home, the people said. Mr. Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, and Mr. Eldridge have sought in the last few years to become political players."

He seems nice.Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "The Republican Party consensus has turned back toward Cheneyism.... Like Cheney, these [presidential] candidates have plans for an aggressive, more confrontational United States."

"The Senate Held Hostage by Presidential Ambitions." Dana Milbank: Senate Republicans who are running for president "have discovered that tying the Senate in knots is a cheap and easy way of gaining attention. But a casualty of their game is governing: turning Congress, already barely functioning, into a legislative mess. It is no small irony that Republicans are running for president by proving that their party can't govern."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Rand Paul's campaign against bulk collection of telephone records has raised his standing with his father Ron's libertarian supporters.

** Jennifer Senior profiles Jeb Bush in New York. Pretty entertaining. Here's a tidbit: "He is stubborn, relentless, exhausting.... [When he was governor,] Jeb mainly espoused a gentlemanly approach to dissent. But on occasion, he could be ruthless. When Alex Villalobos, a Republican state senator, refused to support an education initiative of his in 2006, Jeb stripped him of his position as majority leader and moved him to a minuscule office with only a TV tray for a desk." CW: Make that petty, vindictive, obnoxious. ...

     ... Here's Senior's take on Jeb's competition: "Almost all of the other candidates seem to have more Achilles' heels than they do feet." Ha! ...

... "Making a Mockery of the Law." Eric Lichtblau & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "... lawyers say [Jeb] Bush ... is stretching the limits of election law by crisscrossing the country, hiring a political team and raising tens of millions of dollars at fund-raisers, all without declaring -- except once, by mistake -- that he is a candidate. Some election experts say Mr. Bush passed the legal threshold to be considered a candidate months ago, even if he has not formally acknowledged it. Federal law makes anyone who raises or spends $5,000 in an effort to become president a candidate and thus subject to the spending and disclosure restrictions. Some limited activities are allowed for candidates who are merely 'testing the waters' for a run.... Last week, two campaign watchdog groups, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, called on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Mr. Bush had broken election law...." ...

... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The Nevada Legislature adjourned Monday without voting on a measure to change the state's presidential nominating process from caucuses to a primary, a blow to Jeb Bush, who was hoping for the switch. Some Nevada Republicans supported the change, but the party's leaders in the Assembly did not think there were enough votes for passage and never called the roll. That was in part because Harry Reid, the state's senior United States senator and the Democratic leader, intervened to help torpedo the change. Mr. Reid called Harvey Munford, the lone Democratic member of the Assembly ... to support the switch in committee, and persuaded him to drop his support."

Daniel Strauss of TPM highlights some features of Scott Walker's state budget proposal, the better to make him popular among the nation's buttheads: drug-testing public assistance recipients (somebody get a big ole pee cup for Elon Musk); slashing the state university system's budget (get thee behind me, liberal profs); getting rid of half the scientists in the state natural resources department (heathens!); cutting state parks funds (stay indoors more, kids); cutting public broadcastings (bunch of leftist liars). ...

... Digby in Salon: "No matter how far to the right [Scott Walker] goes, it will never be enough for a Republican base gone mad."

Megan Apper & Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee joked earlier in the year he wished he could have pretended to be transgender in high school 'when it came time to take showers in PE.' Huckabee made the comments at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this year but the comments were uploaded to YouTube over the weekend by World Net Daily. 'For those who do not think that we are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your 7-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended and you can't be offended if she's greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man.'"

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said this week that he was a 'huge fan' of Pope Francis but that the pontiff should stop buying into the global warming debate and, instead, 'leave the science to the scientists.'" ...

... Stupid AND Ignorant. Steve M.: "Does Santorum not realize that the pope actually is 'leaving science to the scientists' -- including the eighty credentialed members of the Vatican's own Pontifical Academy of Sciences, under whose aegis last year's statement on 'Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility' was issued?" ...

... CW: Besides all those non-sectarian members of the Pontifical Academy, some of whom are Nobel-Prize winners, Pope Francis himself has an M.A. in chemistry. Nonetheless, you can bet Santorum will repeat his advice to the Pope. Because stupid AND ignorant works for Santorum.

Steve Benen: Ted Cruz goes to Massachusetts & tells the folks gathered before him that John Kennedy would be a Republican today. Because tax cuts. Benen walks back Cruz's "reasoning."

Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will make a 'major announcement' about his 2016 plans in New Orleans on June 24. Jindal, who has already made frequent visits to key primary states and launched a presidential exploratory committee, has previously said that he would made his 2016 plans known after the end of Louisiana's legislative session on June 11." ...

Stephanie Graham of the Washington Spectator, in Salon: Bobby Jindal, at the behest of Grover Norquist, has ruined Louisiana's fiscal health, and all three Republicans who are running to succeed him --including diaper-fetishist Sen. David Vitter -- are running against Jindal's Norquist-centric policies. They are say, BTW, they would accept the Medicaid expansion.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas Winning Arms Race! Manny Fernandez & Dave Montgomery of the New York Times: "Students and faculty members at public and private universities in Texas could be allowed to carry concealed handguns into classrooms, dormitories and other buildings under a bill passed over the weekend by the Republican-dominated Legislature. The measure is being hailed as a victory by gun rights advocates and criticized by many students and professors as irresponsible and unnecessary. The so-called campus-carry bill is expected to be signed into law by the Republican governor, Greg Abbott." ...

... CW Reminder: Many towns in the "Wild West" did not allow people to carry guns within the town limits.

David Kumbroch of WHNT-Huntsville, Alabama: Alabama legislators think they've figured out a way to avoid issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples; they'll do away with the licenses altogether & issue contracts -- to different-sex couples only. CW: Why do I suspect this stunt won't work?

Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "On Tuesday morning, a 26-year-old Muslim man named Usaama Rahim was shot and killed by FBI and Boston law enforcement officials after allegedly drawing a knife during a confrontation. An FBI agent says Rahim had been under 24-hour surveillance as the subject of an 'ongoing' investigation; Boston's police chief says the investigation was terrorism-related and that Rahim was considered a 'threat' who was being approached for questioning.... Rahim's older brother, however, disputes this account.... It's not clear how the elder Rahim, who is said to be 'an imam at a mosque in the San Francisco area,' arrived at his account of events."

CBS Denver: "Della Curry..., the former kitchen manager at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora..., lost her job on Friday after giving school lunches to students who didn't have any money.... In the district, students who fail to qualify for the free lunch or reduced lunch program receive one slice of cheese on a hamburger bun, and a small milk. Curry says that meal is not sufficient. Many times she paid for lunches out of her own pocket."

News Lede

AP: "Doctors completed surgery Tuesday on Secretary of State John Kerry's broken leg at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and predicted he would make a full recovery."

The Commentariat -- June 2, 2015

All internal links removed.

NEW. Sam Borden of the New York Times: "Sepp Blatter said Tuesday that he would resign from the presidency of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, in the wake of a corruption inquiry, an extraordinary turn just four days after he was re-elected and defiantly insisted that he was blameless and committed to cleaning up the organization. Mr. Blatter, 79, said he would ask FIFA to schedule a new election for his replacement as soon as possible. The next FIFA congress is scheduled to meet in May 2016, but he acknowledged that the organization could not wait that long for new leadership given the current situation."

NEW. Mike DeBonis & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Senate advanced a sweeping remake of U.S. surveillance powers Tuesday, two days after an internal split among Republicans caused the legal authority for key counterterrorism programs to temporarily expire. By a vote of 83 to 14, the measure cleared a crucial procedural hurdle, as senators acted to close debate on the USA Freedom Act, a House-passed bill that would end the National Security Agency's practice of collecting troves of call data from telephone companies.... Depending on the amendment votes and procedural maneuvers, the bill could be signed into law as soon as Tuesday night."

NEW. Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times: "Elon Musk says his companies don't need the estimated $4.9 billion they enjoy in government support, but the money will help them move faster to transform the dirty business of energy. 'If I cared about subsidies, I would have entered the oil and gas industry,' said Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and the chairman of SolarCity. Musk's remarks came in response to a Times story detailing his corporate strategy of incubating high-risk, high-tech companies with government money -- estimating the total received or pledged so far at $4.9 billion, a figure Musk did not dispute."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday revived an employment discrimination lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch, which had refused to hire a Muslim woman because she wore a head scarf. The company said the scarf clashed with its dress code, which called for a 'classic East Coast collegiate style.' 'This is really easy,' Justice Antonin Scalia said in announcing the decision from the bench. The company, he said, at least suspected that the applicant, Samantha Elauf, wore the head scarf for religious reasons. The company's decision not to hire her, Justice Scalia said, was motivated by a desire to avoid accommodating her religious practice. That was enough, he concluded, to allow her to sue under a federal employment discrimination law. The vote was 8 to 1, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.... In dissent, Justice Thomas wrote that the company's dress code was a neutral policy that could not be the basis for a discrimination lawsuit."

... The Washington Post story, by Robert Barnes, is here. ...

... CW: I'm just glad Scalia recognizes non-Christian practices. In the past, he has argued that the cross stands for people of all religions & has ridiculed the idea that it does not.

Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court on Monday made it harder to prosecute people for threats made on Facebook and other social media, reversing the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who directed brutally violent language against his estranged wife. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said prosecutors must do more than prove that reasonable people would view statements as threats. The defendant's state of mind matters, the chief justice wrote, though he declined to say just where the legal line is drawn. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for seven justices, grounding his opinion in criminal-law principles concerning intent rather than the First Amendment's protection of free speech." ...

... Robert Barnes' story is here.

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "A federal judge who is hearing a lawsuit from House Republicans against President Obama is requesting more information about a funding dispute at the center of the case.... Judge Rosemary Collyer, an appointee of former President George W. Bush..., appeared skeptical last week of the administration's request to dismiss the lawsuit.... The administration last week asked Collyer to dismiss the lawsuit ... argu[ing] the House lacked standing, meaning there is no particular harm to the House and the body is, therefore, ineligible to bring the suit. But Collyer ... indicat[ed] that there could be harm to the House if the administration had ignored its funding decisions."

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Mona Lynch in a New York Times op-ed: "For decades, our federal court system has been quietly perpetrating some of the deepest injustices in the name of the war on drugs.... We must rein in these practices if we are to reshape our country's criminal justice system for the 21st century.... Data also indicate that mandatory minimums and enhancements ... have been disproportionately used against black defendants." See also the story of Lester Bower under Beyond the Beltway.

Tierney Sneed of TPM profiles Edward Blum, the man behind the Supreme Court case that could change one-person-one-vote to one-voter-one-vote.

The Guardian is liveblogging today's Senate debate on the USA Freedom Act. ...

... Mitch's Latest Game Plan. Dustin Volz of the National Journal: Rand Paul "won't be scoring votes on the surveillance amendments he so desperately wanted. But Mitch McConnell will.... The majority leader came to the floor late Sunday evening — after most senators had gone home for the night -- to offer a handful of amendments to the surveillance-reform bill known as the USA Freedom Act. The measure would revive the Patriot Act's dead authorities but reform its most controversial one, Section 215, to effectively end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. phone metadata. By 'filling the tree' with what he called 'modest' changes to the measure, McConnell effectively blocked off debate on other potential amendments -- including two Paul had said he would stand down for if he was promised simple-majority votes on them.... If any of [McConnell's amendments] pass, they would need to go back to the House, which could prompt a game of legislative Ping-Pong delaying the bill's final passage -- and keep the Patriot Act lapse from ending." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "Mitch McConnell -- even in the face of an Appellate Court finding against the NSA -- has been demonstrating why Rand Paul is right. "... the only amendments there ought to be room for are ones that McConnell wouldn't like." (CW: And which, according to Volz, Mitch has precluded.)

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The families of four Americans imprisoned or unaccounted for in Iran will testify Tuesday before a House committee poised to call for Iran to release the detainees immediately."

Justin Fishel, et al., of ABC News: "An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation's busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned. The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system. According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General's report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints." Emphasis added. ...

... CW: This should make the usual scaredy cats a lot more anxious than the sunsetting of the NSA's bulk data collection program. ...

... Adam Lerner of Politico: "Melvin Carraway, the TSA’s acting administrator was reassigned, according to a statement issued by Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security. Mark Hatfield, who had been the agency's acting deputy director, will take the reins. Carraway, who joined the agency in 2004, had been the acting administrator only since January. Johnson's moves came the same day of an embarrassing report about the agency's handling of security at the nation's airports."

Michael Grunwald of Politico: "The public debate [on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal] has focused on the adequacy of TPP's environmental and labor safeguards, its potential to feather the nests of well-connected pharmaceutical, software and finance interests, and the secrecy of its negotiations. But the heart of the deal is an effort by the twelve participating countries to phase out tariffs and other export barriers for more than 11,000 categories of commodities, and [U.S. Trade Rep Michael] Froman is frustrated that isn't getting more attention. In an interview with Politico, he said export-supported U.S. jobs pay 13 to 18 percent more than the average job, and argued that freer trade along the Pacific Rim would create a lot more of them." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "WikiLeaks announced an effort Tuesday to crowd-source a $100,000 reward for the remaining chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, after the organization published three draft chapters of the deal in recent years. 'The transparency clock has run out on the TPP. No more secrecy. No more excuses. Let's open the TPP once and for all,' WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement."

Still Doin' the Obummer Care Song & Dance. Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "House GOP leaders are offering a glimpse into how they plan to respond to this month's highly anticipated decision on ObamaCare. The trio of House leaders plans to outline specific policy proposals sometime before the court's ruling, but will hold off on releasing legislative language until afterwards, according to a spokesman for Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). 'We'll have a plan that will be public before the ruling, but given that we don't know exactly what they'll say, we'll have to wait for the ruling to have text to align with the situation,' spokesperson Brendan Buck said Monday." CW: Some glimpse. Just one more effort to influence the Supremes in a decision they probably already have made. ...

... Simon Maloy of Salon: "The day before oral arguments in the case began in March, the three working group members published an op-ed laying out in determinedly vague terms the principles for their Obamacare 'off-ramp' proposal. After the oral arguments, the working group released a statement saying 'we will be ready to act' if the court rules for the plaintiffs. That was three months ago. The court's ruling is expected to be released very soon. So where is the 'contingency plan' majority leader [Kevin] McCarthy said would be forthcoming back in January?... He and his colleagues have insisted over and over that they'll be 'ready' for the fallout of the King decision, but when pressed to demonstrate that readiness, they demur. The reality of the situation -- which McCarthy and his colleagues have worked to obscure -- is that the Republicans remain as divided as ever on how to actually handle the impossibly complex task of crafting healthcare legislation." ...

... MEANWHILE in Kansas. Katrina vanden Huevel of the Nation, in the Washington Post: "This 'real live experiment [to reject the ACA Medicaid expansion, among other catastrophic decisions],' as [Gov. Sam] Brownback once put it, has resulted in the pain and suffering of many Kansans. And yet, instead of acknowledging those consequences as a warning sign, the Republican presidential candidates have embraced them as a blueprint. It's all part of the same GOP pattern -- a continued retreat away from reason and toward a blind ideology -- one that always comes with a body count."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The federal judge assigned to preside over the criminal case against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) donated at least twice to Hastert's congressional campaigns, federal campaign finance records show. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin gave Hastert for Congress $500 in 2002 and $1000 in 2004, according to the Federal Election Commission. Thomas Durkin made the donations while he was a partner at a private law firm, Mayer Brown." He also made other small donations to Republican candidates. Durkin is an Obama appointee. "One of [the defense] lawyers [in another case against Hastert], Hastert's son Ethan, is a partner at Mayer Brown -- which happens to be the same firm Durkin worked at before he was appointed to the federal bench." ...

... CW: Hey, Durkin is a gentleman & a judge. I'm sure he'll be impartial. This is how the system works. ...

... Bill Press thinks Denny Hastert got a raw deal. It was his own money! It was private! He's not a drug dealer or a Mafia guy! ...

... Jeffrey Toobin: "The precise contours of Hastert's relationship with Individual A remain mysterious, but his legal ordeal is easily understood and, it seems, richly deserved." BTW, according to Toobin, paying off an extortionist is legal.

Opera Buffa. Dana Milbank: Yet another bungled GOP effort at "minority outreach." CW: A low-comedy version of "The Marriage of Figaro," without the sex. But music! Betrayal! Missed meetings! Buffoons! Buffoons! Buffoons!

Brady Dennis & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The National Cancer Institute's announcement Monday that it will soon begin a nationwide trial to test treatments based on the genetic mutations in patients' tumors, rather than on where the tumors occur in the body, highlights a profound shift taking place in the development of cancer drugs. Researchers increasingly are using DNA sequencing, which has become far faster and cheaper over time, to identify molecular abnormalities in cancers. That technology is allowing them to develop drugs they hope will prove more effective in specific sets of patients and to design clinical trials that get the most promising drugs to market more quickly. 'We are truly in a paradigm change,' James H. Doroshow, director of the division of cancer treatment and diagnosis at the NCI, said in announcing the initiative Monday."

William Rashbaum & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Federal authorities believe that Sepp Blatter's top lieutenant at FIFA made $10 million in bank transactions that are central elements of the bribery scandal engulfing international soccer, United States officials and others briefed on the case said Monday. The revelation puts the money trail closer to Mr. Blatter, FIFA's president, than had been previously known." ...

Presidential Race

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "In a wide-ranging interview [with Katie Couric], the Vermont independent senator and Democratic presidential hopeful [Bernie Sanders] said he is running because someone needs to stand up for the middle class":

... CW: Thanks to Yahoo! for giving Bernie a halo.

Sam Frizell of Time: "Hillary Clinton will officially launch her campaign for president on June 13 with a rally on New York City's Roosevelt Island, ending the gradual ramp-up phase of her bid for president."

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: Run Warren Run is shutting down.

Katie Glueck of Politico: "He's spent a third of his life in Congress and is a fixture on the Sunday morning news-show circuit, making nearly 70 appearances in the past five years. But as he announced his presidential bid Monday here in the tiny town where he grew up, Lindsey Graham sought to knock down the notion that he's a creature of Washington, telling a personal story that's largely been overlooked over the course of his two decades in the House and Senate. It's the tale of a son of pool-hall owners, who grew up near-impoverished in the back room of his parents' bar. As a college student, he raised, and eventually adopted, his little sister after their parents died, before going on to have a career as an Air Force lawyer and then rising to become South Carolina's senior senator." CW: I'm glad to find out Graham is an actual human being & not just a talk-show clown. I'm not sure why coming up through the school of hard knocks turns a person into a warmonger. ...

     CW Update: Oh, I forgot. Contributor D. C. Clark reminds me that Graham answered my question last week:

My family owned a restaurant, a pool room, and a liquor store, and everything I know about the Iranians I learned in the pool room. I ran the pool room when I was a kid and I met a lot of liars, and I know the Iranians are lying. -- Lindsey Graham

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Lindsey Graham has a plan to win the GOP nomination. If it works, it'd be a first." DelReal explains the flaw in the plan. CW: What DelReal doesn't discuss is how much control Graham has over his state's GOP organization, a consideration crucial to his thesis & Graham's plan.

As Akhilleus might say, "He seems nice."According to the Wall Street Journal (no link), Dick Cheney is making a comeback with a book & an "advocacy group" -- lovely daughter Liz is his co-conspirator -- that is meant "to make a splash on the national stage" and "is bound to make himself a flash point in the 2016 debate." ...

     ... Steve M. is not quite convinced. ...

     ... Neither is Simon Maloy of Salon. ...

     ... "Can't Keep a Bad Man Down." As Ed Kilgore notes, most of the GOP slate is already pretty much on board the Cheney train; indeed, two of Cheney's policy aides are already advising Jebbie. ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post on "the ridiculous non-candidate charade.... [Jeb] Bush maintains that he can't decide whether he wants to become the next Decider." CW: What makes it not ridiculous is that it allows the pre-candidates to raise gobs of money without having to comply with our campaign laws.

Beyond the Beltway

Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "The Garden Valley School school district in Idaho purchased four rifles and 2,000 rounds of ammunition to help school officials protect students against potential threats, Idaho television station KBOI reported on Saturday. 'We just have to protect our kids and we didn't want to do it in a haphazard way,' Garden Valley School District Superintendent Marc Gee told KBOI." CW: Providing arms & ammo to a few "school officials" doesn't seem haphazard to me.

Mainiacs. Steve Mistler of the Portland Press: "A bill that would allow Mainers to carry a concealed handgun without a permit moved a step closer to becoming law Monday when it cleared a key vote in the House of Representatives. The 83-62 vote increases the likelihood that Maine will become only the seventh state that allows a person to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. The legislation has the backing of Republicans and Democrats, including 15 Democrats in the House.... In the Senate, the bill passed Friday on a 23-12 vote [but requires more procedural votes]. Gov. Paul LePage is expected to sign the bill if the Legislature passes it."

Another Texas Execution. Jordan Smith of the Intercept: "Now 67 and one of Texas's oldest and longest-serving death row inmates, [Lester Bower] has faced seven execution dates. His eighth -- and most likely final -- is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3. This time, unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, he will almost certainly be executed. Bower maintains his innocence. He has alleged his defense at trial was deficient, and that prosecutors withheld critical evidence from his attorneys. Moreover, since his conviction, witnesses have come forward to say that they know who really killed the four men in the aircraft hangar at the B&B Ranch -- and it wasn't Les Bower."

News Ledes

Politico: "President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy at Beau Biden's funeral in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, the vice president's office announced Tuesday. The Catholic funeral mass will cap three days of ceremonies to mourn the death of Vice President Joe Biden's eldest son. Beau Biden, the former attorney general of Delaware and an Iraq veteran, died of brain cancer on May 30 at age 46."

Washington Post: "A video released Monday by Oklahoma Highway Patrol shows [Nehemiah] Fischer, an associate pastor at a local Tulsa church, pushing a trooper moments before he was shot on Friday. For authorities, the video is proof that Fischer started the scuffle that ended in his death. For the Fischer family, it's an uncomfortable but unavoidable epitaph to an otherwise 'God-fearing man.'"