The Commentariat -- June 1, 2015

Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times (7:11 pm ET Sunday): "In a rare Sunday night session, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to begin a debate on a bill passed by the House to curtail a national security surveillance program approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the law that authorized the program was set to expire at midnight in the face of continuing opposition from Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. The 77-to-17 vote was a remarkable turnabout -- grudgingly approved by the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentucky Republican -- just a week after the Senate narrowly turned the bill away at his behest. Mr. McConnell, in a desperate attempt to keep the surveillance program going, encouraged senators to vote for a bill that he still found deficient.... Mr. Paul ... said he would decline to let Mr. McConnell move to a rapid passage of the bill, which requires the consent of every senator, before midnight." ...

     ... New Lede (12:10 am ET today): "The government's authority to sweep up vast quantities of phone records in the hunt for terrorists expired at 12:01 a.m. Monday after Senator Rand Paul ... blocked an extension of the program during an extraordinary and at times caustic Sunday session of the Senate. Still, the Senate signaled that it was ready to curtail the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program with likely passage this week of legislation that would shift the storage of telephone records from the government to the phone companies. The House overwhelmingly passed that bill last month. Senators voted, 77 to 17, on Sunday to take up the House bill." ...

... Ellen Nakashima & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post (7:19 pm ET Sunday): "The legal authority underpinning several national security programs appeared all but certain to expire at midnight Sunday, with Senate Republicans unable to maneuver around ... Rand Paul, who has pledged to block efforts to extend the law. After emerging from an evening caucus meeting, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the majority whip, said he did not expect the Senate to approve the only legislation that could avoid a lapse in the authority -- a House-passed bill that would provide for an orderly transition away from the most controversial program authorized under the current law, the National Security Agency's bulk collection of call records from telephone companies." ...

     ... New Lede (12:01 am today): "The legal authority for several national security programs expired at midnight Sunday and will not be renewed for at least two days, after Senate Republicans leaders were unable to maneuver around Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a presidential candidate who followed through on a pledge to block an extension of the law." ...

... Lisa Mascaro of the Los Angeles Times (7:44 pm ET Sunday): "The National Security Agency's once-secret program for collecting the records of millions of Americans' telephone calls is on the verge of ending after running for most of the last 14 years, as the Senate seems all but certain to fail to renew the spy agency's legal authority by a midnight deadline. ...

     ... New Lede (12:00 am Sunday): "After 14 years and hundreds of millions of records of Americans' telephone calls, the National Security Agency stopped bulk collection of phone data Sunday, officials said, as legal authority for the once-secret program expired."

... The Guardian has a liveblog here. ...

... Dan Roberts, et al., of the Guardian: "Sweeping US surveillance powers, enjoyed by the National Security Agency since the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, shut down at midnight.... Almost two years after the whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the Guardian that the Patriot Act was secretly being used to justify the collection of phone records from millions of Americans, critics of bulk surveillance went further than expected and forced the end of a range of other legal authorities covered by the Bush-era Patriot Act as well. The expired provisions, subject to a 'sunset' clause..., are likely to be replaced later this week with new legislation -- the USA Freedom Act -- that permanently bans the NSA from collecting telephone records in bulk and introduces new transparency rules for other surveillance activities. The USA Freedom Act, once passed, will be the first rollback of NSA surveillance since the seminal 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "For the first time since the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans will again be free to place phone calls ... without having logs of those contacts vacuumed up in bulk by the National Security Agency. And for the first time in nearly 14 years, if government agents identify new phone numbers that they suspect are linked to terrorism, they will have to subpoena phone companies for associated calling records.... The N.S.A. can no longer simply query its database for the information. This unusual situation may last only a few days, until Congress can reach an accommodation over three counterterrorism laws that expired at 12:01 a.m. Monday.... But interviews with law enforcement and intelligence officials about what they will do in the interim suggest there are multiple workarounds to the gap." ...

... Dan Froomkin of the Intercept has quite a fine rant on the "parliamentary farce." ...

... Lauren Fox of the National Journal: "In the last hours before key provisions of the Patriot Act were expected to expire, there were few senators who could deny the role that one man -- Edward Snowden -- had played in the law's demise." ...

... Manu Raju & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Behind closed doors in the Senate's Strom Thurmond Room, Republican senators lashed out at [Rand Paul]'s defiant stance to force the expiration of key sections of the PATRIOT Act, a law virtually all of them support. Indiana Sen. Dan Coats' criticism was perhaps the most biting: He accused the senator of 'lying' about the matter in order to raise money for his presidential campaign, according to three people who attended the meeting.... [Paul] skipped the hour-long meeting. That only infuriated his colleagues more." ...

     ... (CW: How lovely that the leaders of the American confederacy meet in the Strom Thurmond Room. The South has indeed risen again.) ...

... Alex Rogers of the National Journal: "Rand Paul got what he wanted -- expiration of the Patriot Act -- but he alienated a lot of people along the way." ...

... Charles Pierce offers his usual (and appropriately) cynical take on the show. ...

... AND of course Li'l Randy gets carried away. Alex Byers of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday evening that some people in Washington are 'secretly' hoping for a terrorist attack to hit the U.S. to make him look bad.... 'People here in town think I'm making a huge mistake,' Paul said [on the Senate floor]. 'Some of them, I think, secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me.'" ...

... FINALLY, Andy Borowitz: "The National Security Agency is compensating for the expiration of its power to collect the American people's personal information by logging on to Facebook, the agency confirmed on Monday." Thanks to contributor D. C. Clark for the link.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In a town [-- Washington, D.C. --] where few events ever truly break through the thick layer of partisanship, the death of Joseph R. Biden III on Saturday night unleashed an outpouring of sorrow."

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd., Corporate Welfare Edition. Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles entrepreneur Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space. And he's built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times. The figure underscores a common theme running through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups." CW: So glad I could help.

Nirvi Shah of Politico: "Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's Illinois alma mater, [fundamentalist Christian] Wheaton College, said Sunday that it is stripping his name from a center on economics and public policy 'in light of the charges and allegations that have emerged,' the college said in a statement." CW: The real scandal is that the college named a center for him in the first place.

Celebrity Justices. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: Supreme Court justices "seem to like the acclaim and influence that come from appearances before friendly audiences. But many of them appear wary of more general public scrutiny.... The recent flurry of public appearances is part of a trend that has been decades in the making. As the court's workload has dropped, the justices have found time for more outside appearances.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Brian Williams may lose his seat as anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News,' but executives are looking for a way to keep him at the network in a new role." CW: One possibility: he could host a prime-time reprise of Johnny Carson's old daytime show "Who [sic.] Do You Trust?" Other suggestions welcome.

Charles Pierce bids a fond farewell to Bob Schieffer. ...

... Driftglass's tribute to Schieffer is far nicer. ..

... AND here's what Schieffer said to us:

MEANWHILE, Cardinal Ross Douthat, the Vatican's Principalis Emissarium de Sexualem Habitus, is weighing in on the prospects for polygamy in the U.S.

Paul Krugman: "There's a definite 1914 feeling to what's happening [to the European economy], a sense that pride, annoyance, and sheer miscalculation are leading Europe off a cliff it could and should have avoided.... Some major players seem strangely fatalistic, willing and even anxious to get on with the catastrophe -- a sort of modern version of the 'spirit of 1914.' in which many people were enthusiastic about the prospect of war. These players have convinced themselves that the rest of Europe can shrug off a Greek exit from the euro, and that such an exit might even have a salutary effect by showing the price of bad behavior." ...

... Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph: "Greek premier Alexis Tsipras has accused Europe's creditor powers of issuing 'absurd demands' and come close to warning that his far-Left government will detonate a pan-European political and strategic crisis if pushed any further."

Presidential Race

Trip Gabriel & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "The first evidence that Mrs. Clinton could face a credible challenge in the Iowa presidential caucuses appeared late last week in the form of overflow crowds at Mr. Sanders's first swing through that state since declaring his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. He drew 700 people to an event on Thursday night in Davenport, for instance -- the largest rally in the state for any single candidate this campaign season, and far more than the 50 people who attended a rally there on Saturday with former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland." ...

... CW: That could be because the O'Malley campaign is not exactly reaching out to voters. When I tried to find out when & where O'Malley would appear in New Hampshire Sunday, the campaign site gave no information, I couldn't find it via Google & the campaign did not respond to my phone call or e-mail. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "The senator from Vermont has little chance of defeating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. But he is reminding his party of something it often forgets: Government was once popular because it provided tangible benefits to large numbers of Americans.... He wants government to do stuff, and the sort of stuff he has in mind is potentially quite popular." ...

... Ben Schreckinger of Politico: Many of Bernie Sanders' "scary," radical "communist schemes" of 1981 have become mainstream. CW: My compliments to Politico & Schreckinger. Really.

David Sirota in Salon: "While [Hillary] Clinton was secretary of state, her department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to Clinton Foundation donors. That figure from Clinton's three full fiscal years in office is almost double the value of arms sales to those countries during the same period of President George W. Bush's second term. The Clinton-led State Department also authorized $151 billion of separate Pentagon-brokered deals for 16 of the countries that gave to the Clinton Foundation. That was a 143 percent increase in completed sales to those nations over the same time frame during the Bush administration. The 143 percent increase in U.S. arms sales to Clinton Foundation donors compares to an 80 percent increase in such sales to all countries over the same time period.... Lawrence Lessig, the director of Harvard University's Safra Center for Ethics, says they 'raise a fundamental question of judgment' -- one that is relevant to the 2016 presidential campaign."

Beyond the Beltway

Michael Specter of the New Yorker: Vermont "has now become the first to remove philosophical exemptions from its vaccination law.... Perhaps because the debate over removing the philosophical exemption has been rancorous and long, the governor [Peter Shumlin (D)] first opposed the legislation. More recently, he suggested that he was neutral. On Thursday, possibly sensing the political peril involved in siding with the anti-vaccine movement, Shumlin signed the bill without much publicity."

Janet DiGiacomo & Jethro Mullen of CNN: "Highway patrol troopers in Oklahoma fatally shot a man whom they had been trying to get out of high water, authorities said." ...

... Michael Miller of the Washington Post reports the family's side of the story.

The Commentariat -- May 31, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden III, the former attorney general of Delaware and the eldest son of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., has died of brain cancer, his father announced on Saturday. The younger Mr. Biden was 46.... A popular Democratic politician in his home state who was known to be very close to his father, Mr. Biden served two terms as Delaware's top law enforcement official before announcing last year that he would not run for a third term so he could make a bid for governor in 2016." ...

... Vice President Biden's statement is here.

... Beau Biden's Washington Post obituary, by Paul Kane, is here. ...

... President Obama's quite moving statement is here.

Manu Raju of Politico: "Rand Paul plans to force the expiration of the PATRIOT Act Sunday by refusing to allow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to expedite debate on a key surveillance bill. In a statement to Politico Saturday, Paul warned that he would not consent to any efforts to pass either an extension of current law or the USA Freedom Act, a reform bill passed overwhelmingly by the House earlier this month. 'So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program,' Paul said." ...

... Raju's background story is here.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Kimberly Kindy, et al., of the Washington Post: "... at least 385 people [have been] shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, more than two a day, according to a Washington Post analysis. That is more than twice the rate of fatal police shootings tallied by the federal government over the past decade, a count that officials concede is incomplete. 'These shootings are grossly under­reported,' said Jim Bueermann, a former police chief and president of the Washington-based Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving law enforcement.... About half the victims were white, half minority. But the demographics shifted sharply among the unarmed victims, two-thirds of whom were black or Hispanic.... So far, just three of the 385 fatal shootings have resulted in an officer being charged with a crime -- less than 1 percent."

Mary Troyan of USA Today (May 29): "U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller announced Friday he will resign Aug. 1, almost one year since he was arrested and charged with battery of his wife. By resigning, Fuller, 56, gives up what had been a lifetime appointment. The departure creates another vacancy on the federal bench in Alabama, which is already depleted.... Fuller's caseload was reassigned to other judges after his arrest but he continued to collect his salary.... Most members of Alabama's congressional delegation had publicly urged him to step down within weeks of his arrest, but Fuller resisted while his criminal case worked its way through the courts.... Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, had begun preparing possible impeachment proceedings. And women's advocacy organizations had launched campaigns for his removal."

The Affable Opportunist. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Federal law enforcement agents say [former House Speaker Dennis] Hastert's [R-Ill.] years as a lobbyist and rainmaker explain how he was able to promise $3.5 million in cash to a former student who claims Mr. Hastert sexually molested him decades ago. A former wrestling coach and high school teacher, Mr. Hastert did not enter Congress as wealthy as some of his colleagues. Yet he was still able to amass a small fortune with land deals, one aided by an earmark he secured for a highway interchange. But it was at his own post-Congress lobbying firm and at the professional services firm Dickstein Shapiro that Mr. Hastert swelled his cash flow, working all sides of issues and glad-handing members of Congress for controversial clients.... The Hastert era in the House ... was known for loose reins on spending and the extensive use of earmarks, legislation that directed tax dollars to home-district projects." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker writes an excellent post, tying together the threads of what has been revealed & surmised in the Hastert case. ...

... CW: I listened to this to hear what vapid gibberish Brooks would spout, and he didn't disappoint, but Mark Shields is worth hearing:

Nicholas Kristof: "In California, 80 percent of water used by humans goes to farming and ranching.... It's time for a fundamental rethinking of America's food factory.... Something good could come from the California drought if it could push this revolution a bit further, by forcing a reallocation of water to the most efficient uses. But remember that the central challenge can't be solved by a good rain because the larger problem is an irrational industrial food system.... You can also calculate your own water footprint at National Geographic's website."

Bill Moyers, in Salon: "... the challenge of journalism today is to survive in the pressure cooker of plutocracy." From "remarks were made by Bill Moyers at the presentation of the Helen Bernstein Book Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The ceremony took place at the New York Public Library on May 26, 2015." CW: If you don't feel like reading something serious today, at least read the Robert Benchley anecdote.

CW: Looking for something else, I came across these remarks by former Supreme David Souter on the Constitution, written as "a great compromise," which is "in a state of inconsistency with the daily practice of politics" & a "culture of intransigence":

Alana Massey's essay in the New Republic on "the white Protestant roots of racism" is a bit disjointed, thus unsatisfying, but she still manages to offer some insights into our racist past & present.

The Quality of Stench. Daniel Politi of Slate: "Anyone hoping that FIFA President Sepp Blatter would take on a more conciliatory tone after his re-election in the midst of a corruption scandal that has shaken global soccer to its core was in for a rude awakening Saturday. As he started his fifth term on Saturday, Blatter directly hit out at the United States, essentially implying that the Justice Department timed its arrests in Zurich and the announcement of a major corruption probe to hurt his chances of re-election. 'No one is going to tell me that it was a simple coincidence, this American attack two days before the elections of FIFA,' Blatter told Swiss television, according to the Guardian. 'It doesn't smell good.'"

Presidential Race

Socialism for Me but Not for Thee. Bob Cesca in Salon: Ted Cruz railed against disaster relief for the Northeast after Hurricane Sandy, but with parts of Texas under water, he's imploring the federal government to "fulfill its statutory obligation" & send aid to Texas. Cesca is under the impression Cruz is asking for "redistribution" of money from all us to Texas. CW: No word on his views about how man-made climate change likely has exacerbated Texas's drought-and-flood cycles.

Ali Breland of Politico: "Sen. Marco Rubio will not participate in the Iowa Straw Poll, his campaign team confirmed Saturday. The Florida senator and 2016 hopeful's decision marks the latest blow to the August event long considered a staple on the Republican road to the presidential nomination. Jeb Bush, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Mike Huckabee have all said they won't participate this cycle. Many, including Gov. Scott Walker. Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz have yet to signal if they will attend."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "While acknowledging that he cannot appeal an acquittal, an Ohio prosecutor says a judge made serious errors before finding a Cleveland police officer not guilty in the deaths of two unarmed suspects, and he wants an appeals court to order the judge to correct the record. The prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty of Cuyahoga County, said in court documents that were posted Friday on The Plain Dealer website that Judge John O'Donnell's reasoning in the voluntary-manslaughter trial of Officer Michael Brelo could set a legal precedent that would 'endanger the public.'"

News Ledes

New York Times: Lenny "Merullo, who died on Saturday at 98 in Reading, Mass., played shortstop for the 1945 Cubs, the franchise's last pennant winner, and was the last surviving ballplayer to have worn a Cubs uniform in a World Series."

New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry has cut short his trip to Europe after breaking a leg while bicycling on Sunday and is returning to Boston for medical treatment. The State Department said that Mr. Kerry's bike struck a curb while he was cycling near Scionzier, France. He was taken to a hospital in Geneva and never lost consciousness."

The Commentariat -- May 30, 2015

Internal links removed.

NEW. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley launched his long-shot bid for the presidency on Saturday, offering himself to Democrats as a younger and more progressive alternative to front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. O'Malley was poised to fly to Iowa, the nation's first presidential nominating state, after announcing his candidacy with a populist address that took jabs at Clinton, big banking and federal immigration policy. He will visit New Hampshire on Sunday."

Fearmongering Alert. White House: "In this week's address, the President addressed critical pieces of national security business that remained unfinished when the Senate left town. This Sunday at midnight, key tools used to protect against terrorist threats are set to expire":

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama suggested ominously on Friday that allowing domestic surveillance programs to expire at a Sunday deadline could lead to a terrorist attack on the United States.... Mr. Obama has kept up pressure on the Senate to pass the legislation by arguing that the surveillance it authorizes is vital to thwarting a terrorist attack, despite a lack of evidence that it has ever done so." CW: See also Charlie Savage's NYT report, linked yesterday, which indicates bulk data collection hasn't prevented a single terrorist act. To be fair, however useless & invasive the program may be, the USA Freedom Act (love the name!) does contain enough in the way of reforms that Human Rights Watch supports it. ...

Richard Serrano & Timothy Phelps of the Los Angeles Times: "Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying a former student from Yorkville, Ill., to conceal his alleged sexual abuse of the youth that took place while Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach at a high school there, federal law enforcement officials said Friday. A top official, who would not be identified speaking about the federal charges in Chicago, said investigators also spoke with a second person who raised similar allegations that corroborated what the student said." ...

... BuzzFeed: "A source familiar with the investigation told BuzzFeed News that U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon considered but did not pursue additional charges against former Speaker Dennis Hastert, which would have included a reference to an Individual B, one of potentially several alleged victims of 'prior misdeeds.'" ...

... Pete Williams, et al., of NBC News: "Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid a man to conceal sexual misconduct while the man was a student at the high school where Hastert taught, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News on Friday." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Assuming this report is accurate, the term 'abuse' would appear to exclude any consensual adult relationship -- you know, of the type increasingly accepted by most people, if not by all of Hastert's political allies." ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "The unassailable moral greatness of the people who wanted Bill Clinton impeached over a blowjob remains striking." ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones cites a 2003 profile of Hastert by Jonathan Franzen for the New Yorker: "He became a born-again Christian in high school, and much of his time at Wheaton College, an evangelical institution, was devoted to religious study... [H]e comes from a religious college that provided instruction in service and submission, rather than in partying and doubt." CW: It would seem people often turn to fundamentalist religions as a means to exorcise or suppress some part of themselves they don't like. ...

... Wheaton College: "Wheaton College has received and accepted the resignation of Wheaton alumnus and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives J. Dennis Hastert from the Board of Advisors of its J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy."

... Monique Garcia of the Chicago Tribune: "The Illinois House has put on hold a proposal to spend $500,000 to put a statue in the state Capitol honoring Republican Dennis Hastert after the former U.S. House speaker declined the offer. Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan filed a bill May 5 to set aside the money, and the measure got out of a committee two weeks ago.... '(Hastert) called a month or so ago and said he appreciated the recognition and honor, but asked us to defer given the state's financial condition,' Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. Brown would not say whether the effort is now scuttled following Hastert's indictment...." ...

... CW: Why a Democrat would introduce a bill honoring Hastert is beyond me ...

... Tarini Parti of Politico: "Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert ... embarked on what appeared to be a lucrative post-congressional career that involved multiple sources of income.... When he left office in 2007, he was worth between $4 million and $17 million, according to financial disclosure filings. Although most of his wealth was tied to real estate holdings, he had a steady flow of cash from different sources as well. In addition to establishing his own consultancy, Hastert & Associates, Hastert began lobbying on behalf of various major clients for Washington-based lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro in 2009." His clients included the tobacco company Lorillard & numerous oil companies. He has resigned from Dickstein Shapiro. "The former speaker supplemented his lobbying income with a position on the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Hastert, who has been a director since 2008, earned more than $205,000 in total compensation from the CME in 2014 alone, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Hastert has resigned from that position as well." ...

... CW: Sadly, Jesus could not save Denny from abusing high-school boys & working for big tobacco & big oil. Hard to say which is worse. ...

... Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), in a Washington Post op-ed: "Fossil fuel companies and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution.... The parallels between what the tobacco industry did [-- (which were) ... ultimately found by a federal judge to have amounted to a racketeering enterprise -- ...] and what the fossil fuel industry is doing now are striking." ...

... CW: Sheldon WhiteHouse is the guy who ousted then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) in 2006. (See Presidential Race below.) Whitehouse is also among my preferred choices for POTUS. If Clinton wins the nomination, Whitehouse would make an outstanding VEEP choice. Among other qualities, he is a terrific orator, which would help mitigate the fact that Clinton is not.

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a crucial step in normalizing ties between Washington and Havana and the latest progress in President Obama's push to thaw relations between the United States and the island nation. Secretary of State John F. Kerry rescinded Cuba's designation as a terrorism sponsor at the end of a 45-day congressional notification period that began on April 14, when Mr. Obama announced his intention to remove Cuba from the list." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Steven Shepard of Politico: "The Federal Communications Commission says it receives more complaints about unwanted phone calls than any other issue. As a response, the FCC is asking phone companies to offer services to their customers that block calls placed by an automatic dialer. Pollsters are asking to be exempted from the new guidelines, arguing that legitimate researchers shouldn't be grouped with telemarketers and debt-collectors. But, for now, the FCC has no plans to establish a carve-out for telephone surveys."

Lydia Saad of Gallup: "Half of Americans consider themselves 'pro-choice' on abortion, surpassing the 44% who identify as 'pro-life.' This is the first time since 2008 that the pro-choice position has had a statistically significant lead in Americans' abortion views.... On a longer-term basis, a higher percentage of women today than in 2001 call themselves pro-choice, while men's identification is about the same." CW: Apparently the wingers' hyperactive efforts to keep the little ladies barefoot & pregnant is finally influencing American women. Keep up the good work, Scotty! Eventually, the only GOP woman left standing will be the ghost of Phyllis Schlafly. ...

... More Bad News for Scotty, et al. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit struck down an Idaho law banning abortions 20 weeks into pregnancy Friday on the basis that the law unconstitutionally prohibits abortions before the point of fetal viability outside of the womb. It also declared unconstitutional Idaho's requirement that women undergo second trimester abortions in hospitals, calling it 'an undue burden' on women seeking abortions.... Friday's decision comes as momentum behind anti-abortion legislation, particularly 20-week abortion bans, grows. Similar prohibitions have been passed in 14 states in the past five years. Supporters of the measures say 20 weeks is when fetuses begin to feel pain, a claim most of the medical community considers to be without scientific basis." ...

... Washington Post Editorial Board: "Enacted in 1973, the Helms amendment stipulates that foreign assistance may not be used 'to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.' It is clear that abortions to end pregnancies caused by rape are not barred by that language. But successive administrations, Democratic and Republican, have treated the amendment as an absolute ban on funding any abortions.... We hope Mr. Obama ... takes the steps needed to ease the suffering of war rape victims by giving them access to the medical care that is their right." CW: What about it, Hillary?

Yesterday Akhilleus linked this excellent NPR report by Wade Goodwyn, who -- as Akhilleus noted -- accidentally forgot to follow NPR's both-sides-do-it rule of "journalism":

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The FBI has notified crime labs across the country that it has discovered errors in data used by forensic scientists in thousands of cases to calculate the chances that DNA found at a crime scene matches a particular person, several people familiar with the issue said. The bureau has said it believes the errors, which extend to 1999, are unlikely to result in dramatic changes that would affect cases. It has submitted the research findings to support that conclusion for publication in the July issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the officials said."

Matt Apuzzo & Sam Borden of the New York Times: Loretta "Lynch, only one month into her job as attorney general, captured the world's attention this week when she vowed to rid FIFA, soccer's global governing body, of corruption. Her news conference on Wednesday was watched around the world and made her the face of the United States government's crackdown on some of the world's most influential soccer officials. The Argentine newspaper La Nación introduced Ms. Lynch as 'the relentless attorney.' In Paris, Le Figaro called her 'the woman who is rocking FIFA.' In Germany, she was simply called FIFA-Jägerin -- the FIFA hunter.The FIFA indictment capped a month in which Ms. Lynch set in motion a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore Police Department and slapped Wall Street banks with billions of dollars in fines for manipulating currency markets. ...

... Owen Gibson of the Guardian: "Despite the chaos and controversy engulfing world football's governing body, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has secured a fifth term in charge. The 79-year-old defeated his rival, the Jordanian Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein, to whoops and cheers from his supporters. Blatter polled 133 votes to Prince Ali's 73, which would have been enough to take the contest to a potential second round but his 39-year-old challenger withdrew." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Ben Schreckinger & Jonathan Topaz of Politico: "Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee will officially enter the presidential race on June 3...."

Congratulations, Scotty-Boy! Gail Collins: "The 2016 Todd ('Legitimate Rape') Akin Award for Sexual Sensitivity goes to Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.... Last week, Walker was on a radio talk show, praising a law he signed requiring women who want an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. Which they're supposed to watch, while the physician points out the features of the fetus. An ultrasound, he said, was 'just a cool thing.'... His larger point was apparently that the sight of a fetus in an ultrasound is so moving that a woman undergoing an abortion would almost certainly change her mind. This is wrong. There's no evidence these ultrasound laws discourage women who have already decided they want an abortion. And it's incredibly insulting because it presumes that they're making this choice on a kind of whim.... The ability to speak carefully is an attribute we look for when we're trying to decide who we should elect as the most powerful and closely scrutinized human being in the world." ...

... AND, as Victoria D. noted in yesterday's commentary, "The average cost of a fetal ultrasound is $263. Governor Wanker has just mandated that women seeking abortions receive one because they're 'cool.'... So much for limited, small government." See also reports by Lydia Saad of Gallup & Tierney Sneed of TPM, linked above.

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is blasting the Obama administration's decision to formally remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism."

Tim Egan: "What bothers [Jeb Bush] is not the threat of megastorms, life-killing droughts, city-burying sea rises -- but experts in the scientific community who are sounding such alarms.... In addressing and assessing the great issues of the day, Jeb Bush has disqualified himself to lead. On top of that, he's politically inept. All he has going for him is a certain arrogance, to use his word, that the name Bush entitles him to be president." Turns out the Smart One is more backward than the Dumb one: when he was President, Dubya said, "that the unsustainable increase in greenhouse gas 'is due in large part to human activity.'"

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: Li'l Randy can't find a billionaire sugar daddy.

Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday that universities that boycott Israel should lose their federal funding. Cruz's remarks were aimed at the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is gaining traction on college campuses. It calls for U.S. companies and universities to divest from Israel. Cruz has spoken against BDS but sharpened his tone Thursday.... 'BDS is premised on a lie and it is antisemitism plain and simple.'" Sheldon & Miriam Adelson were in the house.

Dana Milbank: "... why do mainstream conservatives give the [Duggar] family such a full frontal embrace?... The Duggars' picks in statewide races have fared poorly.... And their views of wifely submission won't help Republicans nationally with their gender gap. The overwhelming majority of Christian conservatives are ... neither racist nor believers in exotic notions of patriarchy and fertility. Surely there is a way for Republican office-seekers to appeal to them without wooing the most extreme."

Gubernatorial Race

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A day after a recanvass of the ballot boxes left him still trailing by 83 votes, James R. Comer, the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, conceded the Republican primary race for governor on Friday to Matt Bevin, a wealthy Louisville businessman and Tea Party favorite." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Zack Ford of Think Progress: "North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has vetoed a bill that would have allowed state officials to refuse to officiate marriages. The legislation (SB 2), which passed in the House on Thursday having previously passed in the Senate back in February, would have allowed state magistrates to opt out of conducting marriage ceremonies based on a sincerely held religious objection. Though the bill does not specifically reference same-sex marriage, its purpose was to allow officials to retain their jobs without officiating for same-sex couples.... The legislation did not pass with enough support to override McCrory's veto."

Evan Wyloge of the Washington Post: "About 250 mostly armed anti-Muslim demonstrators -- many wearing T-shirts bearing a profanity-laced message denouncing Islam -- faced-off against a roughly equally sized crowd defending the faith in front of a Phoenix mosque Friday night. Violence never broke out, but the clash was often heated, as demonstrators yelled and taunted one another across a line of police separating the two sides.... Jon Ritzheimer, the organizer of the protest..., first began publicly demonstrating after two Phoenix residents carrying assault rifles were killed by police outside at a Muhammed cartoon-drawing contest in suburban Dallas earlier this month."

News Lede

Washington Post: "The rebel group that has seized power in Yemen has taken at least four U.S. citizens prisoner, according to U.S. officials who said that efforts to secure the Americans' release have faltered."